Cairo Criminal Court's decision on 16 May to hand provisional death sentences to former president Mohamed Morsi and 105 co-defendants in the Wadi Al-Natroun jailbreak case triggered opposite reactions in local and foreign circles. Shortly after the sentences were handed down three judges were killed in a terrorist attack while on their way to Al-Arish in North Sinai. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and acting Minister of Justice Ibrahim Al-Heneidi, immediately accused the Muslim Brotherhood of responsibility for the attack. Security officials have repeatedly claimed that groups like Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), act as a front for violent acts coordinated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Shaaban Al-Shami, the presiding judge in the jailbreak trial, said final sentences would be passed on 2 June after the Grand Mufti Shawki Abdel-Karim had given his non-binding opinion over the death sentences. Even then the defendants have the right to appeal the judgement before the Court of Cassation. Egypt's highest judicial authority has regularly overturned death sentences handed down since the removal of Mohamed Morsi in 2013. The White House, the US State Department, the European Union (EU) and the German ambassador in Cairo all criticised the verdict as being politically motivated. China refused to the join the Western chorus, insisting the fate of Morsi was a purely Egyptian affair. The German ambassador's comments provoked a strong backlash. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, who is due to visit Germany on 3 June, received a letter on Tuesday from the Anti-Brotherhood Journalists Group urging him to cancel his trip in protest at Germany's “frequent interventions in Egypt's domestic affairs.” Raymond Ibrahim, editor of the US-based Middle East Forum, slammed the Anglo-American media for seizing on Morsi's conviction to step up its negative portrayal of Al-Sisi. “Whenever a judgement is passed against a Brotherhood official the Western media cries that Al-Sisi is leading Egypt back to Mubarak-style rule,” wrote Ibrahim. “The mainstream Anglo-American media, which follows the Obama administration's lead, is only interested in portraying Al-Sisi as an oppressive autocrat — especially when it comes to his campaign against the radical Muslim Brotherhood officials, their sermons and teachings. They refuse to admit the president enjoys the support of the majority of Egyptians who rejected the draconian Islamist agenda the Brotherhood had tried to impose.” While American and British media outlets insisted Morsi's conviction was the latest sign of the undoing of the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, Abdel-Rehim Ali, editor of Al-Bawaba news website, argued “Morsi's conviction is another sign Egypt is heading in the right direction and Egyptians will not allow Islamist fanatics to steal their revolution.” Abdel-Rehim wondered how it could be “the Western media does not question why the death penalty against Morsi failed to elicit any kind of sympathy for him on Egypt's streets.” Al-Ahram political analyst Osama Al-Ghazali Harb drew attention to the fact the preliminary death penalty against Morsi was issued days after an American court sentenced a man to death after he was found guilty of planting two bombs during the Boston city Marathon in 2013 which killed three and injured more than 200. Harb further noted that “judges have long been a favourite target of Muslim Brotherhood militants, beginning in 1948 when Ahmed Al-Khazindar sentenced two Brotherhood activists to death for murdering British occupation soldiers in a night club on Christmas Eve.” Harb also remarked that US criticism of the Morsi verdict came hot on the heels of mass African American street protests against “what they call white police brutality and politically motivated judges.” The jailbreak case, points out Abdel-Rehim, was first heard by the Ismailia Court in 2012 and 2013, when Morsi was in office. “The Ismailia court, led by judge Khaled Mahgoub, listened to hundreds of witnesses who detailed how Morsi and other Brotherhood officials coordinated with Hamas, Hizbullah and jihadist Bedouins in Sinai to exploit the chaos of the 2011 uprisings to infiltrate the country, storm prisons, and undermine the Egyptian police.” When he was arrested on 27 January, 2011 Morsi was in charge of the Muslim Brotherhood's political office. According to Abdel-Rehim “State Security recorded conversations between Morsi and Hamas and Hizbullah members during which they discussed ways to use the Friday of Anger, planned for 28 January, to undermine security and pave the way for a religious rule.” “While young pro-democracy activists were protesting in Tahrir Square against hereditary rule and in favour of democratic freedoms the Muslim Brotherhood was conniving with Hamas, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis and Hizbullah to impose a religious state on the people of Egypt.” “The Ismailia court discovered that the leading Brotherhood official Essam Al-Erian, visited Lebanon in June, 2011, three months after Mubarak was ousted from office, to express thanks to Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah for helping Brotherhood leaders escape Wadi Al-Natroun Prison.” Nor should we forget, says Abdel-Rehim, that Mohamed Mabrouk, the state security officer charged with recording Morsi's foreign contacts in January, 2011, was assassinated in Cairo in November, 2013. While Hamas has denounced the Morsi ruling, Hizbullah has yet to issue a statement. Ammar Ali Hassan, an expert on Islamist movements, argues that the negative reactions from the Western media were to be expected. “Most Western media outlets, along with Western governments, cling to the false belief that the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate group that can be integrated into the political process and hence pave the way for a democratic rule and the peaceful rotation of power in Egypt and other Arab states. They once said the same thing about Erdogan in Turkey, touting him as an example of moderate Islam. Now, of course, they are starting to describe Erodgan as an authoritarian who wants to change the constitution to gain absolute power.” Most local analysts agree Morsi's conviction heralds a zero-sum war between the Muslim Brotherhood and the regime of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. “In such a stand-of, victory for one party means total loss for the other. This is the pattern the conflict between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood will now follow,” says Harb. “Before Morsi's conviction on Saturday there had still been talk about a possible reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood.” That now seems less likely than ever. Pan-Arab dailies like Al-Hayat have argued that Saudi Arabia's new ruler, King Salman, could facilitate a reconciliation between the Egyptian state and the Brotherhood, as well as engineer a thaw in relations between Cairo and Ankara and Doha. Press reports have recently appeared in Saudi Arabia claiming Erdogan had demanded Morsi's release as a pre-condition for recognition of Al-Sisi's regime. Al-Ahram analyst Amr El-Shobaky has yet to write off any chance at reconciliation. “Political Islam, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, can still be integrated into Egypt's political process,” he argues. “There is a moderate camp within the Brotherhood that believes in liberal democracy and civil government. It could become part of the mainstream opposition. It is radically different to the conspiratorial clique led by Morsi and his fellow fanatics the Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, business tycoon Khairat Al-Shater and the preacher of hate Youssef Al-Qaradawi.” Morsi still faces trial on charges of espionage. If found guilty he could face another death sentence.
