The international community expresses concerns over an Egyptian court's decision to seek the death penalty for ex-president Mohammed Mursi and 106 others.
ADVERTISEMENTThe decision by an Egyptian court to seek the death penalty for ex-President Mohammed Mursi and 106 others has provoked international condemnation.
A US State Department official said Washington was “deeply concerned” by the sentence.
The condemned group, all members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, has been tried in connection with a mass jail break in 2011.
Mr Darrag, an exiled Muslim Brotherhood member spoke out against the sentence from Turkey. Ankara strongly supports the group.
“Now we have the death penalty and this is what I expected,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we have to put the international community on its responsibility – whether it chose to be part of the conspiracy against the revolution in Egypt, against the democratic path in Egypt. Or (will) it support the regain of democracy in Egypt and in the regime? Because, if these verdicts are executed, it will be the end of the democratic path in Egypt.”
The Jordanian branch of the Brotherhood has openly condemned the sentence. Speaking from the capital Amman, Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier also weighed in on the topic.
“The German government is against the death penalty, as am I, personally” he declared. “It is applicable in any case. It’s a form of punishment that we in Germany reject categorically. I just said a few days ago, during my visit to Egypt, that we expect the Egyptian courts to act according to law and order and not according to political considerations.”
The Cairo court is expected to make a final ruling on June 2, 2015.
A day before the sentence was read, six members of an Islamist organisation based in Sinai were executed for a 2014 attack in Cairo, in which dozens of soldiers and police officers were killed.