Egypt Judges’ Club sue Morsi’s family for $60,300

The pro-regime Egyptian Judges’ Club are suing Mohamed Morsi’s family for one million Egyptian pounds ($60,322) compensation after claiming that his death does not exclude him from the fine.

When Morsi was overthrown by the military and arrested in 2013 the Public Prosecutor accused him of defaming Judge Ali Mohamed Ahmed Al-Nemr.

Addressing the nation in a televised speech on 23 June 2013 Morsi named Judge Al-Nemr as one of 22 judges who would be investigated for election fraud for his role in the 2005 presidential elections.

Al-Nemr was the presiding judge who acquitted Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq of corruption charges in 2013.

In the case known as “insulting the judiciary” a Cairo Criminal Court in December 2017 sentenced Morsi and 19 others to three years in prison for inciting hatred against the court.

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In 2018 the Court of Cassation rejected their appeals and ordered that each defendant pay one million Egyptian pounds ($60,322) to the club. Morsi was ordered to pay the same amount again to Judge Al-Nemr.

Former President Mohamed Morsi died during a court session in June where he was being tried for colluding with Hamas after being consistently denied medical attention for six years.

Before he died the former president faced a number of convictions and retrials for two cases in trials that lacked due process and conclusive evidence.

Egypt’s judiciary has been consistently accused of being partisan. The general turned President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is now responsible for appointing senior judges and the public prosecutor.

Since Al-Sisi came to power there has been a threefold increase in death penalties.

In February the Judges’ Club criticised the UN High Commissioner for statements in which it condemned the execution of nine inmates calling them an “unacceptable intervention on the work of the esteemed and independent Egyptian judiciary.”

The executions sparked a major outcry in Egypt and internationally for their lack of due process and confessions that were made under torture.

Some 60,000 political prisoners remain in detention and other opposition figures have been killed extrajudicially.