Egypt summons Pakistan envoy over death sentences rebuke

Egypt has summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Cairo to express its displeasure with Islamabad’s criticism of a recent raft of death sentences handed out by Egyptian courts.

In a statement released today, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said that Pakistani criticism of the death sentences – which are yet to be upheld – constituted “interference in Egypt’s internal affairs”.

The ministry went on to warn that such interference would “cast a shadow on relations between the two countries.”

On 16 May, an Egyptian court referred 122 defendants to Egypt’s grand mufti to consider possible death sentences against them on charges of jailbreak and espionage.

The defendants included Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president who was deposed by the military in mid-2013.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry condemned the death sentences and called for the “dispensation of justice” on the basis of equity and fairness.

“Pakistan, therefore, underscores the fact, highlighted by many other countries, that the dispensation of justice must be based on the principles of equity and fairness,” the ministry said.

The opinion of the mufti, Egypt’s top religious authority, is not binding. But Egyptian law makes it necessary for judges to seek a religious point of view on all death sentences handed out by the courts.

The court is set to confirm the death sentences on 2 June.