(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Egyptian authorities on Sunday dismissed Turkish criticism of a raft of death sentences recently slapped against leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group.
"The Foreign Ministry expresses its strong denouncement of the unacceptable interference in the affairs of the Egyptian judiciary by the Turkish Foreign Ministry," the ministry said in a statement.
On Saturday, an Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood top leader Mohamed Badie and 13 others to death for violence-related charges.
It also sentenced 37 defendants, including Egyptian-American activist Mohamed Sultan, to life in prison.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry condemned the rulings as a form of "collective punishments."
It insisted that such verdicts "cannot contribute to the permanent peace and stability in Egypt."
Relations between Egypt and Turkey have soured dramatically since the army ousted Mohamed Morsi € Egypt's first freely elected leader and a Muslim Brotherhood leader€ in mid-2013 following opposition protests against his presidency.
Turkey has described the ouster of Morsi by the Egyptian army € headed at the time by current President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi € as a "military coup."
Egyptian authorities have launched a relentless crackdown on dissent which has largely targeted Morsi supporters, specifically the Brotherhood whom the government accuses of carrying out recent attacks on security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula and other parts of Egypt.
The Brotherhood, which was designated a "terrorist organization" by the Egyptian cabinet in late 2013, emphatically denies the allegations, saying it is committed to purely peaceful modes of activism.
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