AFP/Cairo
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has denounced the judiciary, calling it a tool for repression, and called for protests today when a court delivers the first verdict against ousted president Mohamed Mursi.
The country’s first freely elected president, a leader of the Islamist Brotherhood, was ousted by the army in 2013 and put on trial amid a relentless crackdown on the movement.
Then army chief—and now president—Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled Mursi after millions of people protested against the Islamist’s divisive year-long rule.
Egypt’s new authorities then launched a sweeping and sustained crackdown against the Brotherhood that has left hundreds of people dead and thousands jailed.
Today, a Cairo court is set to deliver the first verdict against Mursi on charges of inciting the killing of protesters in December 2012, when he was still in office.
The Brotherhood lashed out at the judiciary ahead of the verdict, with experts saying that a death sentence against Mursi cannot be ruled out.
“The coup commander is exploiting the judiciary as a weapon in the battle against popular will and the democratic and revolutionary legitimacy represented by President Mohamed Mursi,” a Brotherhood statement said.
It warned that such policies “poured oil on the fire of public anger” and “may indeed push the country into a dark tunnel”.
The Brotherhood also called for “non-stop revolutionary marches and demonstrations” from today to support Mursi and demand his reinstatement.
Mursi also faces the possible death penalty in two other trials, including one in which he is accused of spying for foreign powers, and escaping from prison during the 2011 revolt against his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
Separate verdicts in those two cases are due on May 16.
A court confirmed death sentences against 22 supporters of Mursi yesterday over an attack on a police station in which one officer was killed.
The attack in the town of Kerdasa on the outskirts of Cairo on July 3, 2013 came on the same day that Sisi announced he was overthrowing Mursi.
The court ruling confirmed the death sentences it handed down against the 22 defendants in March after they had received the statutory approval of the country’s highest Muslim religious authority, the mufti.
A roadside bomb claimed by the Islamic State group killed three Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula yesterday, medical and security officials said.
The blast struck on the Egyptian side of the divided city of Rafah on the Gaza border.
“An officer and two soldiers were killed and another soldier wounded when their armoured vehicle hit a bomb in the Tawil al-Amir district,” the security official said.
Jail for belly dancer over flag ‘insult’
A Cairo court yesterday sentenced an Armenian belly dancer to six months in jail for “insulting” Egypt’s national flag during a performance last year, a judicial official said.
The dancer, widely known as Safinaz, was also fined 15,000 Egyptian pounds (about $1,960), but has been released on bail pending appeal.
Safinaz went on trial for wearing a costume that resembled the tri-coloured Egyptian flag during a performance last year in the Red Sea resort town of Ain Sokhna.
Media reports say the Armenian gained instant fame after arriving in Egypt more than two years ago, with her “erotic moves” in performances in several movies and at high-profile weddings.
Safinaz is married to an Egyptian.
Mohamed Mursi
