generalspeaking

Rejecting the Brotherhood

"People are not reassured of the fairness of these trials."
"We are concerned by these sentences. All Egyptians, regardless of political affiliation, are entitled to equal and fair treatment before the law, including the full respect for their rights to due process."
"We will review the basis of the verdict which I understand the Egyptian court will make public soon. I don't think we'll have much more announcements to do before a review of the basis of that verdict."
Hassan Nafaa, political science professor, Cairo

Mohammed Morsi has been sentenced to 20 years in jail Photo: Amr Nabil/AP

Mohammed Morsi, who for a year had acted as Egypt's President when the Muslim Brotherhood had taken the polls in an election that followed the downfall of Egypt's long-time autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, has now been convicted of the use of force against protesters. He was sentenced on April 21 to twenty years in prison. He has already spent two years in prison, since his removal by the military from the post of president, and the subsequent outlawing of the Muslim Brotherhood, as a terrorist organization.

Others of the Muslim Brotherhood have received sentences for their part in Egypt's transition from military dictatorship to 'democratic' tyranny. In the wake of Egypt's populist uprising in its 2011 Arab Spring, the Brotherhood came out the winner in parliamentary elections, enabling Mohammed Morsi to sit as Egypt's first freely elected president in 2012. Egypt did not thrill to Islamist rule, and a year of Brotherhood ascendancy surrendered to army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sissi obeying the will of the people, removing the Brotherhood and Morsi from power.

Now that most of the Brotherhood's elite leadership have been imprisoned with long sentences, along with the hundreds of death sentences set down for senior Brotherhood figures, amid charges and convictions of acts of violence laying lower level supporters low, Mohammed Badie, the top leader of the Brotherhood was given serial death sentences. And the tide has turned for former President Mubarak as he and his inner circle have been acquitted of charges brought against them.

The Brotherhood, in its own defence, denies involvement in violence. But it is clear enough that it has influenced violent attacks against the government, the army and national police in the Sinai Peninsula, as well as in cities of central Egypt, including Cairo. Morsi faces additional trials on various charges, including undermining national security by conspiring with foreign groups. The U.S. administration of President Obama comes to mind; a supporter of the Brotherhood and of Morsi in particular.


^{Morsi opposers shouting slogans outside the presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012 (AFP)}
 
Brotherhood and Morsi supporters had attacked crowds of Egyptians outside the presidential palace in December of 2012, protesting a referendum on an Islamist-drafted constitution. Public animosity against Morsi increased in the wake of the fifteen hours of clashes which left ten people dead. Images of bearded Islamists swinging clubs, firing rifles, chanting "God is Great", sealed the fate of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

And now, another Egyptian court has sentenced to life in prison 69 Islamists who set fire to a church in a town not far from Cairo. Two minors were jailed for ten-year sentences for their role in the blaze that took place in Kerdasa in August of 2013. This was a reflection of the protests sweeping the country when hundreds of Morsi supporters were killed in the capital. In response, churches and Christian property were looted and torched, as a reprisal move against Coptic Christians by Muslim Brotherhood members.