Prison letter from Dr Mohamed El-Beltagi about Al-Istiqama case, the coup and its repression

The military coup authority assumes that with the passage of time we shall forget about the root of the despicable crime it perpetrated: kidnapping the elected president, dissolving the elected parliament, suspending the constitution, murdering thousands of innocent people, imposing military hegemony and reincarnating the military state that brought disaster after disaster upon the country for the past 60 years.

The coup authority also thinks that we shall shout “long live justice” when it changes the death sentences to life or long term imprisonment, or when it releases scores of individuals out of the thousands that are in detention, or when it slightly eases the inhumane pressure under which thousands of political prisoners are languishing in prisons.

During the peaceful rally at Al-Nahda Square in protest against the coup, thugs and police troops attacked protesters, firing at them several times in order to terrorise them and force them to disband and end their protest (just as happened during the massacres of the Republican Guards, the Monument and Rabaa Al-Adawiya and as happened prior to that in Maspero, Muhammad Mahmoud, the Council of Ministers, Al-Abbasiyah and others). A number of victims were killed when shot by the same snipers. Then, the murderer was turned into the victim and the victim was accused of murder.

Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, who had no association whatsoever with the events that took place at Al-Giza Square and Al-Istiqamah Mosque – since they did not even leave Rabaa Square, were referred to the criminal courts accused of murder, attempted murder and incitement to murder.

The court was convened at the Police Officers Institute and a judicial body, unrelated to the Appeal Courts General Association’s appointments and unrelated to the jurisdiction pertaining to the locations of the alleged crimes, was assigned to the case. This judicial committee was assigned exclusively to the cases of the Brotherhood. There were no exhibits belonging to the defendants or related to the events apart from a CD and speeches made from the stage at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square and none whatsoever pertaining to the locations relevant to the case. The prosecution claimed that the CD contained inciting speeches and the judge refused to form a technical committee to transcribe the contents of the CD so as to verify whether the content included inciting phrases.

When public and national security officers were asked by the court about any specific events related to the defendants, even if just in passing, they could only say: “I do not remember… I do not know”.

The judge refused to appoint a technical committee to inspect the scene of the crime, which would have proven the impossibility of the occurrence of the crime in the manner proposed by the prosecution. A civil rights lawyer representing the deceased affirmed to the judge that he was not accusing those in detention but others whose names he read out. He asked that the named be added to the case. Yet, the judge refused to meet the demands of the defence. Suddenly, the judged moved to assign the date of the forthcoming session when the defence would be heard. During the next session, the defence lawyers’ arguing statements started being heard. Then the judge called a recess and then resumed the proceedings in order to hear the defence on behalf of the remaining nine defendants.

Then, the judge suddenly decided at the beginning of the next session not to hear the remaining statements and referred the papers of all 13 defendants to the Mufti to seek his approval for sentencing them all to death.

The Mufti’s office refused to approve the death sentences and affirmed that the papers referred to it lacked any absolute evidence linking the detainees with the crimes and with the charges levelled against them. Yet, the judge insisted on his position and sent the papers back to the Mufti’s office for approval of the death sentences against all the defendants. Finally, the court sentenced the defendants to life imprisonment.

What remained after that was to claim that the judiciary had proven to be just and compassionate when it reduced the death sentences to life with labour. Apparently this was part of the required settlement in prelude to releasing Mubarak and the rest of his regime members in response to persistent demands put forward by certain Arab countries.

Our case is not about a death sentence, or life imprisonment or even a declaration of innocence. Our case is to do with a homeland that has been kidnapped through the use of arms and tanks; it is about abuse of the courts and the judiciary in order to justify what in essence has been nothing but a military coup against the democratic political process whereby the military imposed their hegemony and confiscated the people’s right to choose their president and parliament and to establish their own constitution. They also confiscated the right of the people to lead a normal civilian and democratic life. Furthermore, they looted people’s livelihoods and means of sustenance and violated their basic human rights.

Our case, for which thousands of the people’s sons and daughters have offered their lives in sacrifice from January 25, 2011, until today can be summed up in what Gandhi once said that nations ruled by armies are not free yet. For this reason, we shall remain steadfast in our position of rejecting the military coup and all its consequences, no matter how long this will take. We shall continue to say loudly: no to the killer, no to the traitor, no to the forger, no to despotism, no to repression, no to the fabrication of cases, no to the muzzling of mouths, no to the politicisation of the judiciary, no to the re-production of the past during which we suffered for the past 60 years and which brought nothing but disasters, destruction, backwardness, subordination and surrendering the homeland and its holy places to the enemies. This will remain our position even if they hang us. We shall continue to shout: “Down, down with the military rule. Down, down with the all the military’s judiciary”.

Translated from Mubasher-misr.aljazeera, 6 September, 2014

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