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| Africa North |
| Egypt Court Jails Ousted President Morsi for 20 Years |
| 2015-04-22 |
| [AnNahar] An Egyptian court sentenced ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison Tuesday for abuses against protesters but acquitted him of charges carrying a possible death penalty. Morsi was convicted of ordering the arrest and torture of demonstrators involved in festivities in 2012 when he was president, in a verdict The reaction from the United States was more circumspect, with the State Department saying it was concerned by the sentences. Fourteen others were convicted of the same charges, with the Cairo court jailing most of them for 20 years. The court acquitted the defendants of inciting murder in connection with the deaths of a journalist and two protesters during the December 5, 2012 festivities outside the presidential palace in Cairo. Morsi, dressed in a white prison uniform and standing in a soundproof cage, raised his fists when the verdict was announced. Defence lawyers said they would appeal, while rights groups voiced alarm at the ruling, the first in a series of trials Morsi is facing. "This verdict shatters any remaining illusion of independence and impartiality in Egypt's criminal justice system," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy Middle East and North Africa director. She called for a full retrial or the ex-president's release. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Washington would "review the basis" for the court's decision, and that it was "concerned by these sentences." "All Egyptians are entitled to equal and fair treatment before the law," she added. Other Brotherhood leaders have been sentenced to death, and Tuesday's decision to acquit Morsi on the incitement to murder charge surprised some. "We were expecting them to be convicted of murder," said Ramy Ghanem, a lawyer for an anti-Morsi protester maimed in the festivities. "But the sentences are not bad. We were expecting life in prison, but then 20 years is not very different," he said. A life sentence in Egypt is 25 years. |
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