Since the popular uprising by millions of Egyptians that resulted
in the forced removal of Dr. Mohammed Morsi and the formation of another
civilian administration backed by the military hierarchy, several events have
happened that have raised questions regarding the impartial role in the entire
political debacle by the military.
One among the most prominent events that have brought Egypt into
global disrepute is the decisive crushing by brute force of the mass
demonstrations by the Muslim Brotherhood members, a Sunni Islamist religious,
and political platform which has longstanding history.
Before I am misunderstood, it must be made clear that activities
of the Muslim Brotherhood have come under increasing scrutiny for targeting
followers of other religious faiths and members of this religious platform are
seen more or less as fundamentalist Islamic adherents with little or no
tolerance even for other sectarian groupings even within the same Islamic
Religion.
With the above key preamble, let me observe that the Muslim
Brotherhood was successful in the 2011 – 2012 parliamentary elections and its
leader, the United States trained Dr. Mohammed Morsi won the June 2012
Presidential poll. A year after he was sworn in, due to popular acclaim and the
staging of another mass revolution, Mohammed Morsi was removed.
Morsi’s removal followed series of undemocratic moves the then
Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament made to introduce theocracy and
suppress the practice of democratic freedoms and liberal democracy. Under his
watch secular Egyptians and Coptic Christians came under barbaric attacks by
fundamentalists opposed to religious liberalism.
July 3rd 2013 was therefore the day in contemporary history
that the Egyptian military Chief- General Fattah el-Sisi removed Mohammed
Morsi from power and suspended the national Constitution. This decision
nevertheless secured widespread legitimacy from a cross section of the Egyptian
civilian populace in their millions which by far outstripped the number that
actually voted and brought Mohammed Morsi and his now dethroned Muslim
Brotherhood affiliated administration to power before it collapsed like a pack
of cards.
The military Chief then set up an interim government which is
charged with organizing fresh election and the Chief Justice of the
constitutional supreme court of Egypt Mr. Adly Mansour was named leader.
The Massive crackdown of the demonstrators drawn largely from the
Muslim Brotherhood has taken a bizarre dimension with the recent charade of a
verdict of a Tribunal in which 500 or more members of Muslim Brotherhood were
convicted for the alleged murder of one policeman during a demonstration.
Apart from the fact that this sham that emanated from the Egyptian
Court has drawn global wide condemnations, the fact that most of those
sentenced to death never participated in any demonstration but were simply
picked up from the comfort of their homes and driven in ramshackle vehicles to
court, has made it all the more a mockery of the principle of social justice
and the rule of law.
This verdict has created credibility question for the interim
government which has largely operated under the shadows of the powerful
Egyptian military hierarchy which is warming up to present its
commander-General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as a Presidential Candidate. This
military chief has already started international political campaign to
transmute into civilian President as he was recently seen in the international
media visiting some World leaders as if he is the defacto and de jure President
of Egypt.
This judgment has not only turned logic on its head but it has
turned Egypt that used to be venerated as the bastion of ancient civilization
into a theatre of the absurd. It is absolutely absurd to conceive that 500
persons can plot the killing of just one policeman.
This verdict in which 500 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have
been sentenced to death for the alleged killing of just one policeman is one of
the greatest mathematical mysteries because it is absolutely unmathematical to
calculate and conclude that five hundred are equal to one.
But since the military-controlled political institution in Egypt
is all out to crush members of the Muslim Brotherhood to pave way for the
return through the back door of a civilian administration headed by a venerated
and powerful military oligarch, it does not matter if five hundred lives are
wasted with the infantile and warped logic that these crowd conspired, colluded
and participated in the killing of one policeman.
Even the official state media in Egypt has branded this latest
charade as the largest set of death sentences ordered by a court in the modern
history of Egypt.
The Cairo-based Minya Criminal court which handed out these set of
primitive death sentences on Monday March 24th 2014 can at best be described as
the modern day theatre of the absurd.
This is how even the Muslim-backed Malasia Sun newspaper of Monday
24th March 2014 reported the mass death sentences.
The Newspaper reported thus; “The trial which resulted in Monday’s
sentencing, only began on Saturday. The defense team was reportedly not allowed
to make statements or objections, and the majority of the defendants were not
allowed to attend the hearing".
The newspaper also reported that; “When the trial starts on
Saturday and it is just a procedural hearing, and the judge doesn’t listen to
any lawyers or witnesses and doesn’t even call the defendants, you are before a
group of thugs and not the judiciary,” a family member of a defendant told
Reuters.
“This is the largest single batch of simultaneous death sentences
we’ve seen in recent years, not just in Egypt but anywhere in the world,”
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director
at Amnesty International said Monday.
The newspaper quoted critics of the Egyptian government as saying
that; “Egypt’s courts are quick to punish Mohammed Morsi’s supporters but
ignore gross human rights violations by the security forces. While thousands of
Morshi’s supporters languish. Just one police officer is facing a prison
sentence, for the deaths of 37 detainees.”
“Without an independent and impartial process that can deliver
truth and justice for all, many will question whether Egypt’s criminal justice
system has indeed anything to do with justice, “Sahraoui said. “in any event,
recourse to the death penalty is inherently unjust, and the Egyptian
authorities should impose a moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing
it.”
This mass death sentences handed to over 500 Citizens of Egypt by
this Cairo-based court have grossly breached all sensible and well grounded
international humanitarian laws.
Specifically, in part three, Article 26 of the international
Covenant on civil and political Rights, the defendants must not be denied the
right to fair conduct of the trial process including the right to be heard and
represented by legal counsels of their choosing.
"All persons are equal before the law and are entitled
without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law", so, says
Article 26 of the international centenary on civil and political Rights.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is another aspect of the
body of international humanitarian laws that the Egyptian mass death sentences
violated with shameless impunity, making it all the more imperative that the
security council of the United Nations must act decisively to save Egypt from
the unmitigated desecration of human lives that may occur should these
sentences be carried out.
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood”. That is Article one of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. But in reaching this predictable and rash decision, the
Egyptian court has treated these 500 Muslim brotherhood members as persons
without fundamental rights.
Also, Article eleven of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
provides clearly that; “Every one charged with a penal offence has the right to
be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at
which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence”.
From the barrage of news coverage emanating from the trial, it is
clearly that none of these parameters of Justice, equity and fairness were
extended to these 500 persons who were simply moved into a crowded court room
caged like mere irrational inanimate objects and sentenced to death without
allowing them to put up any form of defence.
Now that this injustice has happened, World leaders must not only
speak out in total rejection of this perfidy, but the security council must
take concrete measures to ensure that the government in Egypt is not
allowed to send these 500 persons to their untimely deaths.
26/3/2014
