Egypt’s judge of death to oversee political prisoners 

Egypt’s judge of death, Mohammad Shereen Fahmy, is set to head an independent criminal body which will handle all terror cases. As head of the body Fahmy will oversee appeals, sessions to renew detention, determine the date of trials and decide when to restart trials of people sentenced in absentia.

It is thought that Fahmy’s appointment will safeguard against terror cases being overturned at the Court of Appeal. Though most members of the judiciary are pro-regime, there are elements of dissent within its ranks. In January 2017 the Court of Cassation rejected President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s attempts to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Fahmy’s appointment into this position is symbolic of Egypt’s politicised judiciary –  Fahmy has issued hundreds of death penalties and life imprisonment sentences to political opponents in Egypt, who are routinely cast as terrorists, including to former president Mohamed Morsi.

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After his father’s death Abdullah Morsi identified Shereen Fahmy in a tweet as an “accomplice in the assassination of martyr Morsi.”

Judge Fahmy is considered to be Al-Sisi’s favourite judge after he denied medical attention to the former president and observers have said that his appointment into this position is a reward.

He is well-known for his disdain for outspoken opposition members; he said of the 2011 revolutionaries that they are unpatriotic liars and are working to destroy the country: “[They are a] group of idiots and mercenaries who are intellectually defeated and socially bankrupt.”

In 2016 a Cairo court sentenced 18 defendants to two years in prison for insulting the judiciary after they cheered when one of them threw his shoe at Fahmy.

It is not just protesters who have drawn his wrath. Fahmy referred 59 judges into retirement after they issued a statement refusing to put an end to the 2013 Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in.

Fahmy’s appointment comes against the backdrop of constitutional amendments passed in April that granted the president power over the selection process of top judicial posts.