U.S. 'Deeply Concerned' Over Mursi Death Sentence Bid By Egyptian Court

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

World | Sun May 17, 2015 1:24am EDT

The United States is "deeply concerned" about an Egyptian court decision to seek the death penalty for former President Mohamed Mursi, a State Department official said on Sunday.

The U.S. criticism follows condemnations from Amnesty International and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan after the court ruling on Saturday against the deposed president and 106 supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood in connection with a mass jail break in 2011.

The ruling against Mursi is not final until June 2. All capital sentences are referred to Egypt's top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion, and are also subject to legal appeal.

"We are deeply concerned by yet another mass death sentence handed down by an Egyptian court to more than 100 defendants, including former President Mursi," the State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/17/us-egypt-court-mursi-usa-idUSKBN0O203320150517

[Jesus Malverde]

1. Concerned enough to cut their aid and military assistance?

Doubt it.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. The aid and military subsidies are part of a treaty

signed by Carter back in '78.

[Scootaloo]

2. Gosh, it's like we had no idea this would happen...

When we gave the thumbs-up to a military coup that massacred six thousand egyptians and deposed the first democratically-elected government in the nation's history.

Funny how the United States always seems to march out for militant fascism.

[Jesus Malverde]

7. Lol

If there was authoritarian rule it was morsi and his band of religious nuts

[Scootaloo]

9. Well, except that your hero Fateh el-Sissi slaughtered thousands in his coup

Crushed all protest, jailed journalists, threatened and murdered political rivals, and is now sentencing the remnants of those rivals to death in mass trials. He suspended local democracratic processes, installing his hand-selected people into government positions al lthe way down throught the nation, each of whim had their own little parts in crushing dissent.

Morsi's government was corrupt. But the solution to a corrupt government in a democracy is not a violent military coup, a visceral purge of members of that government by gun and knife, followed by executions of any voter who supported them, torture of journalists who report on all this, etc.

Unless you think the US military ought to start conducting similar purges?

[oberliner]

10. As president, Morsi granted himself unlimited powers

As a result, there was a large scale popular uprising in Egypt against Morsi. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest. The demonstrations were organized by Egyptian opposition organizations and individuals, mainly liberals, leftists, secularists and Christians.

[Comrade Grumpy]

18. Except that Morsi never controlled the repressive apparatus of the state.

Egypt's liberals fucked up big time. They lost the election, and instead of organizing to win the next one, they organized to undo the election results. And played right into the hands of the deep state. Now, the Mubarek era is back, minus only Mubarek.

The Brotherhood isn't my favorite Egyptian political party. But isn't ISIS or even the Salafis. It was a conservative, religious-based party committed to the electoral path. Sort of like elements within the US Republican Party. Not people we would vote for, but people we would vote against, not seek to overthrow.

Egypt's democracy died of a self-induced abortion.

[oberliner]

28. That's one way of looking at it

Who knows how things would look today if he was still in power.

[cosmicone]

13. Morsi should not have played puppet for violent fundies

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Morsi-just-Brotherhood-puppet-20150421

A vast majority of Egyptians didn't want to be a banana Islamic republic - they wanted a secular and progressive state. They were willing to sacrifice liberty to the military whom they trust more than the Muslim Brotherhood.

The people have spoken.

[Comrade Grumpy]

20. I am not surprised that your hatred of political Islam exceeds your love of democracy.

A majority of Egyptians elected him. If you believe in democracy, the thing to do is defeat him in the next election. Not appeal to the thug military to overthrow him, and democracy, too.

I hope Egypt's llberals enjoy their prison cells.

[cosmicone]

24. Read the article I posted

MB won because of boycotts and intimidation. Their win was not "the will of the people."

Instead of making wild accusations you should realize that I don't hate political or non-political Islam. I believe in separation of church and state so I'd equally despise any religious party that goes against secularism whether it be Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or Voodoo. People of all faiths should have equal status, equal access and equal rights.

[Warpy]

3. Only because he was an elected head of state

I have a feeling the protest is a perfunctory one and won't have any real world consequences.

Morsi was convicted for the crimes of the Muslim Brotherhood while he was in office, crimes he supposedly ordered and given 20 years at hard labor. He was sentenced to death for his role in a 2011 mass prison break, one he was accused of orchestrating with foreign Islamist militants.

If you know anything about the Muslim Brotherhood, you know none of them are nice guys, especially the ones that rise to the top. And that's why I think the "deeply concerned" is only perfunctory.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. We feel presidents are above the law.

[jwirr]

16. Bingo. What we are concerned about is that a government leader has finally been held accountable.

[Comrade Grumpy]

19. You gotta be fucking kidding!

A kangaroo trial by a kangaroo court composed of the people who gunned down your supporters by the thousands and overthrew your democratically elected government.

Morsi is being sentenced to death for ESCAPING FROM MUBAREK'S PRISON.

And the dictator Mubarek is about to walk free. That's some accountability.

[jwirr]

21. I have no doubt that you are correct about their court system. And I know what the story is about

but I do not think we would be very concerned if he were not a former ruler.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. He gave himself absolute power and authority....

He was the result of a hijacking of the Egypt Revolution.

Those young people didn't rise up to replace their dictator with a Muslim dictator who wanted Egypt to become an Islamic State.

[Jesus Malverde]

8. Like the nazis they allied with

They belong in the dustbin of history

[cosmicone]

14. +1 n/t

[Sobax]

15. Who allied with who?

[Fearless]

4. Yet we have capital punishment.

I guess so long as WE'RE doing it it's ok. Right?

[jwirr]

17. Capital punishment is for the little guy don't you know? Not a government leader.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. Could be worse....

He could be executed by an anti-aircraft gun.

[KG]

11. One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.

[Nye Bevan]

23. Yes, because capital punishment has no place in today's civilized world,

right?

[the_sly_pig]

25. The issue is accountabblity it seems to me...

Holding leaders accountable, even handing down a prison sentence is kind of a nasty precedence. I wonder if the 1% has any concerns. I wonder if bush* or vader is concerned.

Probably not.

[yallerdawg]

26. We only do "character assassination" of our unpoular leaders.

They are still figuring out how 'democracy' is supposed to work.

[MADem]

27. It's a very bad look for Egypt (to put it mildly).

They've always, in the past, preferred to ship their problems elsewhere, rather than kill or jail them.

Hell, half of the "Taliban" in Afghanistan, once upon a time, consisted of radicals exported straight from Egyptian jails. They were given the choice to git gone or stay in jail.

I hope they reverse this decision--if the GM has any sense, he'll step back from this.