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Egypt condemns comments on Morsi's death sentence Misr Al-Qawia, Turkish President Erdogan strongly condemned rulings, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern
Egypt denounced Saturday the outcry against the death sentence handed to ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 105 others for "criminal acts `that violate Egyptian law". The State Information Service (SIS) condemned the comments, stating that they "reflect ignorance and lack of accuracy", a statement said. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moonurged authorities to avoid steps that could undermine the peace, stability and rule of law in the region, his office told the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency in a statement. "He reaffirms the United Nations' position against capital punishment," the UN statement added. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "If Morsi is given death sentence today, this is indeed a capital punishment against the ballot box.". He called on the international community, mainly the Western world, to take a stance against the Cairo court's decision, , instead of turning a blind eye, and criticised their silence over the issue. "The European Union, the West, have you not abolished the capital punishment? If you have, do you have any sanctions against those who implement it? What are you waiting for? Why are you still silent?" the Turkish president said. According to the moderate Islamist party Misr Al-Qawia, the rulings reflects "extremism in the provisions on political opponents of the state, […] without evidence and without witnesses, or legal or even political logic". Egypt is currently being governed "recklessly", similarly to the rule of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad, whose crimes led to a miserable fate for their countries, Misral-Qawia said. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also condemned the court rulings. Egypt affirmed that the Cairo Criminal Court did not issue any judicial rulings in the two cases, but made two decisions to refer the cases to the Grand Mufti for his consultative opinion, and will issue the verdict in the two cases on 2 June. SIS emphasised that "in accordance with the provisions of the Egyptian law, the defendants are being tried before a normal court and a normal judge, and not before a special court". It called on all parties who have commented on the decisions to look thoroughly into the cases "in an objective manner that does not forego the nature of the charges against the defendants". The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 105 other defendants to death on charges of storming Wadi El-Natrun prison and escaping it in the early days of the 25 January Revolution, kidnapping police officers and detaining them in the Gaza Strip.
