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Making a mockery of justice in the trial of the century

January 23, 2014 at 6:12 am

The pro-coup media in Egypt is trying to compare the trial of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak with the trial of the elected and kidnapped President Mohamed Morsi. They call Morsi’s the “trial of the century”, but it isn’t really a trial; it makes a mockery of justice and has to be the joke of the century. Just like their foolish coup that caused the country to take a dangerous turn away from democracy, the joke of a trial is in very bad taste.


Having kidnapped the legitimate president of Egypt, the coup leaders spirited him away for weeks on end while they put together a list of fabricated charges against him. Unable to find anything, not even one corrupt act or attempt to exploit his position – unlike Mubarak – we also now know that Morsi did not receive any salary for the year that he was in office.

As such, they had to dig into the past, like the old Egyptian saying, “When a businessman is broke, he looks in his old books.” The bankrupt coup organisers rehashed what the media is calling the “events of Al-Ittihadiya” and came up with the ludicrous accusation that Morsi incited his followers to kill 2 of the protestors in front of the presidential Al-Ittihadiya Palace in December last year. Ten were killed in this incident; two protestors and 8 Muslim Brotherhood supporters, but the latter have been totally and deliberately disregarded because the victims’ families accused the Salvation Front of killing the protestors. Those who opened fire on the protestors were arrested and taken to the prosecution but were released because they “confessed” with the name of the person who incited them and paid them.

Another travesty of the justice masquerading as a trial is that the president is being charged whereas his minister of the interior at the time of the incident in question is free and has even been appointed as a security advisor to the interim president, while Morsi’s minister of defence is now ruling the country. Meanwhile, Mubarak, his minister of the interior and senior police officials are being tried for the same reasons as President Mohamed Morsi. It is a mockery in every possible way. We had hoped that the judiciary would not fall prey to this sort of thing, but its members were corrupted during Mubarak’s rule; he corrupted all of the state institutions. The politicised judiciary is now taking orders from the coup leaders and are fulfilling all of their demands, lending false legitimacy to their decisions and acting as a cover for the military takeover.

Despite all of this, President Morsi has been steadfast and could stand tall in the court cage while the judges seemed like pygmies in every way; he could have been trying them, because being in the right always makes someone stronger, regardless of the circumstances imposed on them. The coup leaders, on the other hand, may have all of the power and weapons but they are afraid, intimidated by the Rabaa four-fingered salute. Morsi used the salute in court but those few seconds were not broadcast by the coup media. His words are also being censored.

Who do we think is stronger: the individual standing behind bars or the individual cowering behind the walls of his ministry guarded by tanks and cannons with planes flying above him? It is the leader of the coup who is the true prisoner, while our president is proud and free and is guarded by The Almighty; He alone will defend him for, “Indeed, Allah defends those who have believed.”

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.