SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Ousted Egyptian President Morsi Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison
Morsi was convicted of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters during the clashes that erupted in December 2012
Apr 21, 2015
Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, along with 14 other defendants, was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in maximum security prison and five years of parole over the killing of demonstrators outside his palace in 2012.
Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, was convicted of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters during the clashes that erupted in December 2012, following his decree that all of his decisions and the laws he issued were immune from challenge and could not be overturned.
The charges stem from the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace violence, in which ten people were killed and many others injured, including supporters and opponents of the president and former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Cairo Criminal Court acquitted the former president--who was ousted in a 2013 military coup--of murder charges that could have seen him face the death penalty.
The BBC reports:
Hearing the verdict, Morsi and the other defendants gave a four-fingered salute, a symbol of the deadly clearance of Brotherhood supporters at the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in 2013.
A senior Brotherhood figure, Amr Darrag, called the ruling a "travesty of justice".
"They want to pass a life sentence for democracy in Egypt," he said.
International human rights groups denounced the legitimacy of the trial and the politicization of Egypt's judiciary.
Calling the trial a "sham," Amnesty International declared: "The sentencing of Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison today is a travesty of justice and demonstrates, once again, that the Egyptian criminal justice system appears to be completely incapable of delivering fair trials for members or supporters of the former president's administration and the Muslim Brotherhood."
"This verdict shatters any remaining illusion of independence and impartiality in Egypt's criminal justice system," Amnesty's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said in a statement released Tuesday.
And Mohammed Soudan, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood and an official within its affiliated Freedom and Justice Party, told Al Jazeera that the trial was a "political farce."
"The verdict is 100 percent a political verdict. Morsi, his advisers and supporters who are accused in this case were victims ... police and army officers watched as the opposition attacked the presidential palace," Soudan said. "They killed 11 people and nine of them were supporters of Morsi ... the verdict is a test for the protesters in the street, and also a test for the international community."
But some argued for some small measure of accountability for the violence, however imperfect.
Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights whose client, political activist Ola Shahba, was physically and sexually assaulted near the presidential palace, told the publication Mada Masr that her group opposed the death sentence "in principle."
Still, Nasrallah clarified, "It is clear that there is a deluge of death sentences, along with the imposition of exaggerated penalties upon defendants affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the fact remains that the Muslim Brotherhood--during the course of the year in which they assumed power--committed crimes which necessitate legal prosecution."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, along with 14 other defendants, was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in maximum security prison and five years of parole over the killing of demonstrators outside his palace in 2012.
Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, was convicted of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters during the clashes that erupted in December 2012, following his decree that all of his decisions and the laws he issued were immune from challenge and could not be overturned.
The charges stem from the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace violence, in which ten people were killed and many others injured, including supporters and opponents of the president and former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Cairo Criminal Court acquitted the former president--who was ousted in a 2013 military coup--of murder charges that could have seen him face the death penalty.
The BBC reports:
Hearing the verdict, Morsi and the other defendants gave a four-fingered salute, a symbol of the deadly clearance of Brotherhood supporters at the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in 2013.
A senior Brotherhood figure, Amr Darrag, called the ruling a "travesty of justice".
"They want to pass a life sentence for democracy in Egypt," he said.
International human rights groups denounced the legitimacy of the trial and the politicization of Egypt's judiciary.
Calling the trial a "sham," Amnesty International declared: "The sentencing of Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison today is a travesty of justice and demonstrates, once again, that the Egyptian criminal justice system appears to be completely incapable of delivering fair trials for members or supporters of the former president's administration and the Muslim Brotherhood."
"This verdict shatters any remaining illusion of independence and impartiality in Egypt's criminal justice system," Amnesty's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said in a statement released Tuesday.
And Mohammed Soudan, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood and an official within its affiliated Freedom and Justice Party, told Al Jazeera that the trial was a "political farce."
"The verdict is 100 percent a political verdict. Morsi, his advisers and supporters who are accused in this case were victims ... police and army officers watched as the opposition attacked the presidential palace," Soudan said. "They killed 11 people and nine of them were supporters of Morsi ... the verdict is a test for the protesters in the street, and also a test for the international community."
But some argued for some small measure of accountability for the violence, however imperfect.
Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights whose client, political activist Ola Shahba, was physically and sexually assaulted near the presidential palace, told the publication Mada Masr that her group opposed the death sentence "in principle."
Still, Nasrallah clarified, "It is clear that there is a deluge of death sentences, along with the imposition of exaggerated penalties upon defendants affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the fact remains that the Muslim Brotherhood--during the course of the year in which they assumed power--committed crimes which necessitate legal prosecution."
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, along with 14 other defendants, was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in maximum security prison and five years of parole over the killing of demonstrators outside his palace in 2012.
Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, was convicted of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters during the clashes that erupted in December 2012, following his decree that all of his decisions and the laws he issued were immune from challenge and could not be overturned.
The charges stem from the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace violence, in which ten people were killed and many others injured, including supporters and opponents of the president and former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Cairo Criminal Court acquitted the former president--who was ousted in a 2013 military coup--of murder charges that could have seen him face the death penalty.
The BBC reports:
Hearing the verdict, Morsi and the other defendants gave a four-fingered salute, a symbol of the deadly clearance of Brotherhood supporters at the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in 2013.
A senior Brotherhood figure, Amr Darrag, called the ruling a "travesty of justice".
"They want to pass a life sentence for democracy in Egypt," he said.
International human rights groups denounced the legitimacy of the trial and the politicization of Egypt's judiciary.
Calling the trial a "sham," Amnesty International declared: "The sentencing of Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison today is a travesty of justice and demonstrates, once again, that the Egyptian criminal justice system appears to be completely incapable of delivering fair trials for members or supporters of the former president's administration and the Muslim Brotherhood."
"This verdict shatters any remaining illusion of independence and impartiality in Egypt's criminal justice system," Amnesty's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said in a statement released Tuesday.
And Mohammed Soudan, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood and an official within its affiliated Freedom and Justice Party, told Al Jazeera that the trial was a "political farce."
"The verdict is 100 percent a political verdict. Morsi, his advisers and supporters who are accused in this case were victims ... police and army officers watched as the opposition attacked the presidential palace," Soudan said. "They killed 11 people and nine of them were supporters of Morsi ... the verdict is a test for the protesters in the street, and also a test for the international community."
But some argued for some small measure of accountability for the violence, however imperfect.
Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights whose client, political activist Ola Shahba, was physically and sexually assaulted near the presidential palace, told the publication Mada Masr that her group opposed the death sentence "in principle."
Still, Nasrallah clarified, "It is clear that there is a deluge of death sentences, along with the imposition of exaggerated penalties upon defendants affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the fact remains that the Muslim Brotherhood--during the course of the year in which they assumed power--committed crimes which necessitate legal prosecution."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.