Egypt, sentenced to death former President Morsi – The Republic

CAIRO – Former Egyptian President Morsi was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court of Cairo, along with 105 other defendants, on charges of having organized the escape from prison of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2011, while he escaped the death penalty in the trial for spying for Hamas in which 15 people were sentenced to death. The judgment was read in the Academy of Police in El Khames Tagammò. Death sentence for the number two of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat al-Shater and the secretary general Mohammed el-Beltagi. Now the word passes to the Grand Mufti, the highest Islamic legal authority of Egypt, which will have to decide whether to approve the death sentences. The sending of the judgment to the Grand Mufti is the first step nell’iter legal need to apply the death penalty. The decision of the Mufti is not however binding on the court which will issue its final verdict, for Morsi, June 2. Once this will be announced, the defendants will appeal. The co-founder of the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Amr Darrag, has appealed to the international community to intervene. “This is a political verdict,” he said.

The 28 January 2011 a number of leaders of the Brotherhood evasero from prison of Wadi El Natroun, during the riots anti-Mubarak: Morsi fled with 30 other prisoners, while more than 20 thousand, including Members of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah and Palestinian militants of Hamas, evasero from other prisons of Egypt. Along with 132 other co-defendants, Morsi is accused of tax evasion, attack the prison and murder of agents January 28, 2011.

Morsi, the first president elected in free elections, was deposed by military coup in 2013 after the giant demonstrations against the policies of his government that had accentuated the rift in the country. The former president had already given a sentence of twenty years in prison for the death of several demonstrators during a protest in December 2012 under the presidential palace. The charge against him was inciting violence.

Arguments:

Egypt

Muslim Brotherhood

Starring:

Mohammed Morsi

Hosni Mubarak