Below is the full text of the press statement from ITN Solicitors,the legal representatives of the Egyptian Freedom and Justice party.
President Mohammed Morsi was sentenced to death today (16 May) along with over 100 other prisoners who have been prosecuted following the military’s coup in 2013.
The trial and sentencing of hundreds of political prisoners has drawn huge criticism from legal groups across the world. The sentences have been condemned as politically motivated and intended to repress democratic opposition movements. Concerns about the imposition of mass death sentences in Egypt have gathered pace internationally. Leading human rights’ organisations, such as Reprieve, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty have voiced their concerns about the use of death penalties.
International law specialist, Rodney Dixon QC, and legal advisor to President Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party said, “Everything must be done to overturn this shocking injustice. The military regime must not be allowed to execute the first democratically elected President of Egypt. We have already brought the use of mass death penalties in Egypt to the attention of the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights and will now make immediate representations to the United Nations to seek intervention to prevent the death sentence being carried out.”
Dr. Mohammed Morsi became the first democratically elected President of Egypt following a popular revolution, which saw the overthrow of the military regime, which had ruled Egypt for decades. Dr. Morsi’s democratic Presidency was short lived as the former general and now President Abdel Fattah el Sisi led a military coup, which forcibly removed and detained President Morsi’s entire administration. Since the coup Egypt has seen the killing of thousands of unarmed pro-democratic protestors, the detention of thousands of political prisoners, widespread torture, banning of opposition groups, suppression of free media and the banning of protests.
The most significant act of suppression is the blatant use of the legal system to prosecute political opponents and sentence them to death, sometimes hundreds at time. The legal proceedings have been widely criticised as not even coming close to standards expected from a criminal court let alone where defendants are to be sentenced to death. Lawyers have complained that their clients, many now sentenced to death, were not given the opportunity to consult them, consider any evidence or even put forward a defence. Some hearings that involved hundreds of defendants lasted only one hour.
Recent leaks from within the post coup government have provided evidence that the judiciary in Egypt is subject to interference by the senior members of the current military backed government government. The leaks, which have been verified by international experts as authentic, have identified senior members of the government conspiring to fabricate evidence and manipulate the court process in death penalty cases.
Tayab Ali, who advises President Morsi’s international legal team, said “The sentencing to death of President Morsi must be condemned by the international community. Egypt has blatantly disregarded its obligations under the African Charter and international law. The execution of Mahmoud Ramadan in March this year, despite the African Commission’s orders to suspend his death sentence, show that Egypt does not respect the rule of law. The international community cannot continue to do business as usual with Egypt while its coup leaders sentence thousands to death including Egypt’s only ever democratically elected President. It is time that the UN Security Council intervened in the very many international law violations being perpetrated by Egypt.”