(MENAFN- The Peninsula) An Egyptian court yesterday upheld a death sentence against ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi for plotting jailbreaks and attacks on police during the country's 2011 uprising.
The same court also sentenced Mursi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, to life in prison on charges of spying for the Palestinian Hamas movement, Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah and Iran. In a separate trial in April, Mursi had previously been sentenced to 20 years in jail on charges of inciting violence against protesters in 2012 when he was president.
Then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi ousted Mursi in July 2013 after mass protests calling for an end to his divisive one-year rule.
Sisi has since overseen a sweeping crackdown on Mursi's supporters, with hundreds of Islamists killed and more than 40,000 in custody, according to Human Rights Watch.
Hundreds have also been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials described by the United Nations as "unprecedented in recent history". Yesterday's ruling upheld an initial verdict by the same court from May 16 sentencing Mursi and about 100 other defendants to death in the jailbreak case.
After the latest verdict was read, Mursi, dressed in a blue prison uniform, smiled, clenched his fists together and raised them in a sign of defiance. The United States, European Union, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon all expressed concerns over the initial verdict.
The White House said it was "deeply troubled" by the ruling, described by the European Union as a "worrying development".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was said to be "very preoccupied", while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it a "massacre of fundamental rights and liberties". Amnesty International said such the ruling "demonstrated the appalling state of the country's justice system".
The Muslim Brotherhood called for protests against the verdicts to be staged on Friday over what it described as "farce trials".
Ties between the United States and Egypt plummeted after Mursi's ouster, with Washington freezing its annual $1.3bn in military aid to the country. But relations have since improved and most of the aid was unblocked late last year.
Yesterday's ruling comes after the court consulted Egypt's grand mufti, the official interpreter of Islamic law. Judge Shaaban Al Shamy also confirmed the death sentences against about 100 other defendants, including the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual guide Mohamed Badie and Qatar-based Yusuf Qaradawi, who was tried in absentia.
Twenty-one other defendants have been sentenced to life in prison.
In the espionage case, Shamy confirmed earlier death sentences against 16 defendants, though only three are in custody including Muslim Brotherhood financier Khairat Al Shater. Badie and 15 others were also sentenced to life in prison in the spy case, while three others were given seven years.
They were convicted of spying on behalf of the international Muslim Brotherhood organisation and Hamas from 2005 to August 2013 "with the aim of perpetrating terror attacks in the country in order to spread chaos and topple the state".
All of yesterday's verdicts can be appealed. Sisi has defended the rulings against his opponents, saying they are part of the judicial process and can be appealed. But rights groups accuse Sisi's regime of being even more repressive than that of veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in the popular uprising in 2011.AFP
NGOs face renewed crackdown
Cairo: Ten international rights groups have denounced a "renewed crackdown" by the authorities in Egypt on independent civil society groups that receive foreign funding or are critical of the government.
The authorities targeted all forms of opposition after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, leaving hundreds of his supporters dead and thousands jailed.
The crackdown also widened to target secular and leftist activists who spearheaded the 2011 revolt that deposed veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Dozens of activists have been jailed over a law that bans all but police-sanctioned protests.
Late on Monday, 10 international organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International jointly accused the authorities of "increasing their pressure on independent organisations... that receive foreign funding or have criticised government policies".
Independent groups have already been subjected to continuing harassment and ordered to comply with an "onerous law" on associations.
The law dates to the Mubarak-era and monitors NGO activities and especially their financing, which requires government approval if coming from abroad.
"Today, Egypt's human rights organisations are making a desperate last stand for their independence. The international community must not let the authorities silence peaceful dissent," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy Middle East and North Africa director.
Government "investigators" visited the main Cairo offices of two independent NGOs - the Egyptian Democratic Academy (EDA) and the Cairo Institute for Studies of Human Rights (CIHRS).
The officials sought documents on their registration, statutes, budgets, accounts and funding for the past four years.
A CIHRS lawyer told the investigators they could not search the office or access the files without an official warrant, and the investigators left.
CIHRS refused to cooperate as the officials had no warrant, said the statement that added that four EDA employees have been banned from leaving the country.
The latest investigations follow sweeps in 2011 targeting the premises of 17 Egyptian and foreign NGOs, which sparked an international outcry.
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