Egyptian court sentences former president Morsi to death
REUTERS/J.Post/06/16/2015/CAIRO – An Egyptian court sentenced deposed President Mohamed Morsi to death on Tuesday on charges of killing, kidnapping and other offenses during a 2011 mass jail break. The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and four other Brotherhood leaders were also handed the death penalty. More than 80 others were sentenced to death in absentia. Earlier on Tuesday, the court sentenced Morsi to life in prison in a separate case related to conspiring with foreign groups. The Islamist became Egypt’s first democratically elected president after the downfall of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 but was himself overthrown by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. The court last month convicted Morsi and his fellow defendants of killing and kidnapping policemen, attacking police facilities and breaking out of jail during the 2011 uprising against Mubarak. The death sentence request had drawn criticism from the United States, other Western governments and human rights groups. After Tuesday’s sentencing, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member said the trial had “fallen below all international standards.””This verdict is a nail in the coffin of democracy in Egypt,” Yahya Hamid, a former minister in Morsi’s cabinet and head of international relations for the Brotherhood, told a news conference in Istanbul. Morsi, Badie and 15 others were also given life sentences — which under Egyptian law, means serving 25 years — for conspiring with the Palestinian group Hamas, which rules Gaza. They included senior Brotherhood figures Essam el-Erian and Saad el-Katatni. The court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leaders Khairat el-Shater, Mohamed el-Beltagy and Ahmed Abdelaty to death in the same case. Death sentences were also handed to 13 other defendants in absentia. The verdicts can be appealed.
Judge Shaaban el-Shami, said the Grand Mufti, Egypt’s top religious authority, had said in his opinion that the death sentence was permissible for the defendants who had been referred to him. Morsi, dressed in a blue prison suit, was calm and smiled slightly as the judge read out the first sentence in the court in the Police Academy. The defendants chanted “Down, down with military rule,” as they were led into the court. Morsi has said the court is not legitimate, describing legal proceedings against him as part of a coup led by former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013. Since Morsi’s overthrow, Egyptian authorities have waged a crackdown on Islamists in which hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested. Sisi, now president, says the Brotherhood poses a grave threat to national security. The group maintains it is committed to peaceful activism. Despite US lawmakers’ concerns that Egypt is lagging on democratic reforms, Cairo remains one of Washington’s closest security allies in the region. Relations cooled after Morsi was overthrown but ties with Sisi have steadily improved.In late March, US President Barack Obama lifted a hold on a supply of arms to Cairo, authorizing deliveries of US weapons valued at over $1.3 billion.
Report: Islamic Jihad threatens to break Gaza ‘cease-fire’ if Israel stops new flotilla
By JPOST.COM STAFF/06/16/2015/A senior official from the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has reportedly threatened to break the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that ended last summer’s conflict in Gaza if Israel stops any new flotillas attempting to break the naval blockade of the Strip.According to a Channel 2 report Sunday, senior Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batash said his group was closely monitoring a Swedish ship that has set sail toward the coastal Palestinian enclave. In comments cited by Channel 2 regarding the Swedish Marianne of Gothenburg – the first boat in the Freedom Flotilla III to leave for Gaza – al-Batas said he hoped the vessel would make the same uproar in the international arena as did the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla did in 2010. As the trawler left Sweden in May, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israel will not allow unauthorized boats to enter its territorial waters. Without relating to the Marianne, Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said that “if the so-called helpful Gaza flotillas were really interested in the welfare of the population in Gaza, they would send their aid via Israel. The fact that they insist on a flotilla demonstrates this is an unnecessary provocation.”According to the website of Ship to Gaza Sweden, the vessel is scheduled to stop at ports in Helsingborg, Malmo and Copenhagen, as well as other ports.The trawler does not have room for a significant cargo but will be carrying solar panels and medical equipment, according to the organization. It is carrying five crew members and eight passengers. Herb Keinon and JTA contributed to this report.
