AN Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced former president Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in prison for the torture and killing of opposition protesters in 2012 clashes.
Morsi was on trial along with 12 other members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhoodgroup and the sentencing of one of Morsi’s several trials lasted just four minutes.
“As a representative of the injured protesters, the verdict was satisfactory. However, it definitely wasn’t for the families of those killed in the 2012 protests,” said Mohamed Abdelwahab, a civil rights lawyer for the protesters.
The accused were found guilty of resorting to violence, abductions and torture during protests at the presidential palace, but the judge found no evidence of premeditated murder.
“We were surprised with the innocent verdict for the murder charges. We were only concerned with the separation of our civil rights case,” said Ramy Ghanem, another civil rights lawyer for the protesters.
The Brotherhood’s lawyer declined to comment immediately following the judgment.
The defendants themselves were defiant in court — applauding the judgment and waving to the media which Egyptian authorities had for the first time allowed inside the police academy to film a trial.
“If you look at them, many were dressed in blue, meaning that they have already been found guilty in other trials. Some of them were sentenced to triple life sentences, others to death, so this verdict is meaningless. They think that at some point, they’ll be able to strike a political deal and the charges will be dropped,” said Abdelwahab.
Analysts say the Brotherhood will fight back against the verdict.
“Something predictable is that Morsi will definitely appeal the verdict within the legal appeal period. Actually, there are still many controversies existing in the legal basis of the verdict. Therefore, the appeal would probably be accepted. If the supreme court accepts the appeal, then the case will be handed to another court in Cairo for retrial,” said Elhami Al-Melegy, a columnist with Al Ahram, the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper.
With the Muslim Brotherhood issuing two online announcements denouncing the trial of Morsi and calling on supporters to demonstrate, analysts expressed concern about a potentially volatile security situation resulting from the tensions.
“The messages sent by the Brotherhood will be first noticed by the Egyptian security authority which needs to respond by mobilizing troops, stepping up safety measures and being vigilant against possible Brotherhood campaigns,” said Al-Melegy.
