The Egyptian court recently sentence 683 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to death, including its leader Mohamed Badie. The supporters were sentenced to death in order to crackdown on the people they feel have the potential to begin protests and political violence as an election soon approaches. The court hearing allegedly only lasted 10 minutes to decide the fate of these 683 individuals. As a result, many family members of those convicted have stated that they were unjustly put on trial and one woman was quoted stating the following “My son does not even pray, he does not even know where the mosque is.”
Those who were sentenced were accused of being involved in a murder and attempted murder of several of the Egyptian province of Minya’s policemen on August 14. However, on that same day these policemen killed hundreds of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s former president, supporters in clashes with Cairo. Defense lawyers have boycotted the trial calling it “farcical.” The United Nations has been stated calling the mass death sentence a breach of international human rights. The lawyer Elkomy claims that 60% of those sentenced have been proven to not have been present at the events that took place on August 14. However, the Egyptian government has backed the court for its mass death sentence by stating that it was only passed “after careful study” and that these people were subject to appeal.
Furthermore, Prosecutor Abdel Rahim Abdel Malek has claimed the following “We have strong evidence that incriminates all those sentenced to death. We have videos, witness accounts… documents that prove that the Muslim Brotherhood had called on its supporters to attack police stations and public and private property in case the sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya (in Cairo) was broken up, and that’s what happened,” he said. In addition, Amnesty International has said that at least 1,400 people have been killed by policemen since Mohamed Morsi was overthrown.