Darrag: Morsi’s sentencing is a test before harsher sentences are issued

The sentencing of ousted President Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison is “a trick to gauge the international reaction to a trial, which Amnesty described as a ‘sham’, before pressing other more serious charges, which may carry the death penalty,” former Egyptian minister Dr Amr Darrag said.

He added: “They wanted to break this taboo and establish the principle that he could be tried, and if the international community didn’t act properly in response, there could be harsher penalties. If you are 60 years old and you get 20 years in prison, it’s a death sentence anyway.”

In an interview with journalist Robert Fisk, published by British newspaper the Independent, Darrag said: “Europe’s role was to pressure President Morsi to accept the military coup; it was not seeking to resolve the problem of the coup, as they had claimed and deal with Morsi as the president.”

He also noted that when Catherine Ashton, the EU’s first high representative for foreign affairs came to Cairo, “she sought in her visit to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in the aftermath of the July 2013 military coup to convince Morsi to accept the coup, step down, and accept early presidential elections. She was speaking clearly as a mouthpiece for the European powers, perhaps even for the regime, but Morsi challenged her and refused.”

Darrag also noted his belief that “Egypt’s military regime can be replaced with ‘moderate’ Islamic rule and that the battle is not with the Brotherhood, but the battle of young Egypt for the future of Egypt.”