Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- Amnesty International denounced the death sentence former Egyptian president Mohammed Mursi was sentenced to today, describing it as “a charade based on null and void procedures.”
The leading Human rights body said, through Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, that “condemning Mohamed Mursi to death after more grossly unfair trials shows a complete disregard for human rights. His trials were undermined even before he set foot in the courtroom. The fact that he was held for months incommunicado without judicial oversight and that he didn’t have a lawyer to represent him during the investigations makes these trials nothing but a charade based on null and void procedures.”
“The authorities should also drop the charges of escaping from prison in January 2011, as at the time Morsi was held in administrative detention, under emergency powers and without a judicial detention order,” the leading Human rights body stressed.
“The death penalty has become the favourite tool for the Egyptian authorities to purge the political opposition. Most of those sentenced to death by courts since July 2013 have been Morsi supporters. The deal seems to be: Support Morsi and get sentenced to death or to years behind bars. Instead, Egypt must ensure the independence and impartiality of the justice system and bring to justice all those responsible for gross human rights violations,” Amnesty International’s statement said.
The Moroccan Times.
