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Hundreds of Egyptians Sentenced to Death in Killing of a Police Officer Hundreds of Egyptians Sentenced to Death in Killing of a Police Officer
(about 9 hours later)
CAIRO — A criminal court in the city of Minya sentenced 529 detainees to death on Monday after a single session of their mass trial, convicting them of murder for the killing of a police officer in the rioting last summer after the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. MINYA, Egypt — A crowd of relatives who had gathered outside a courthouse in the town of Matay erupted in wailing and rage on Monday when a judge sentenced 529 Islamists to death in just the second session of their trial, convicting all of them of murdering a police officer. Here in the provincial capital just a few miles away, schools shut down early, and many stayed indoors fearing a riot, residents said.
Legal experts called the case the largest mass trial or conviction in the history of modern Egypt. It also was a surprising acceleration of the nine-month-old crackdown on Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters and liberal dissenters that followed his removal last July. But the crowds went home and soon the streets were quiet.
“We have never heard of anything of this magnitude before, inside or outside of Egypt, that was within a judicial system not just a mass execution,” said Karim Medhat Ennarah, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who specializes in criminal justice. After nine months of escalating repression that culminated in the extraordinary verdict, the military-led government that removed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood appears to have finally cowed his supporters into near-silence here in Minya, perhaps their greatest stronghold. The city was the heart of a fierce Islamist insurgency just two decades ago, and threatened to rise up again, against the new military-led government.
“It is quite ridiculous,” he said, arguing that it would be impossible to prove that 500 people each played a meaningful role in the killing of a single police officer, especially after just one session of the trial. “Clearly this is an attempt to intimidate and terrorize the opposition, and specifically the Islamist opposition, but would the judge get so deeply involved in politics up to this point?” “They want to scare us so we don’t go out into the streets against them, to show us that could be the justification for another death sentence,” said Mohamed Hafez, whose brother was among those sentenced to death. So rather than give them the pretext, he said, the families consoled themselves that mass sentence was in some ways “a good thing,” because it showed that the trial itself was “a farce” and “illegitimate.”
Lawyers said the verdict was almost certain to be overturned on appeal. About 400 of those convicted are fugitives who were sentenced in absentia; under Egyptian law, they will be entitled to a retrial if they are apprehended. Legal experts called it the harshest mass conviction in modern Egyptian history, arguing that it disregarded legal procedures, defied plausibility and stood little chance of surviving appeals. A three-judge panel reached its verdict after two short sessions, and about 400 of those convicted were sentenced in absentia. The Egyptian state news media described the defendants as supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, and they were convicted of participating in rioting last August, set off by the bloody crackdown that followed Mr. Morsi’s ouster in July.
The verdict was the latest in a string of harsh and speedy sentences against supposed Islamist supporters of the deposed president, including a 10-day trial that recently ended in sentences of 17 years each for a group of student protesters. Minya, the site of the new trial, is an Islamist stronghold south of Cairo along the Nile, and news reports said a similar mass trial, including 600 defendants accused of violence against the new military-backed government, was set to begin there on Tuesday. But many Islamists said on Monday that they were afraid to speak out or demonstrate against the ruling, often looking over their shoulders anxiously when approached by a reporter.
Legal analysts suggested that the judges issuing the verdicts might be caught up in the fervor of animosity toward Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters that has swept other segments of society since his ouster, and that they might also be acting on instructions from security officials, moving voluntarily to curry favor with the new authorities. It was a stark contrast to the open defiance that prevailed here last fall even after the new government had established firm control of the capital, a three-hour drive to the north. The change was the clearest evidence yet of how far the new government has succeeded in breaking the Islamist networks that just a year ago had appeared to form a durable electoral majority.
Even though the sentences were almost certain to be reduced, “the staggering harshness and speed of the verdict still show how profoundly the basic institutions of the Egyptian state are malfunctioning,” Nathan Brown, an expert on the Egyptian judiciary at George Washington University, wrote in an email. “The fact that cooler heads are likely to weigh in is only limited consolation for the degree to which mindless repression still seems to be the order of the day.” After nightfall in Minya, a crowd chanting against military rule and the day’s court decision marched through the streets of the Abu Hilal neighborhood, where Islamist groups are particularly strong, and several said that there had been protests earlier in the day at the university.
Egyptian state news media described the defendants as members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that backed Mr. Morsi and dominated parliamentary elections two years ago. After removing Mr. Morsi last summer, the military-led government killed more than 1,000 of his supporters in mass shootings at demonstrations against the takeover, and since then it has arrested many thousands of others. But the crowd of a few hundred was noticeably smaller and more timid than seen in marches in the same streets just a few months ago. And even bystanders repeatedly warned visiting journalists to flee saying police gunfire was imminent. (There was no need: The march broke up voluntarily after scouts on motorcycles reported that the police were coming.)
In December, the government formally outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, declaring it a terrorist group and subjecting its members or supporters to heavy penalties. “Fear, fear,” said Hussein Tammam, a lawyer for some of those convicted. “Things have changed 180 degrees since last fall,” he said. “The security grip has tightened so much that it is worse than it was in the 1990s,” when the security forces crushed the militant insurgency centered in Minya.
The verdict issued on Monday, however, concerned events that took place last August, about six weeks after the military takeover, when security forces used deadly force to disperse huge protest sit-ins. The assault set off a backlash against the police around the country, and Minya, which was a center of a militant insurgency two decades ago, was the scene of some of the worst violence. Rights activists said the ruling also marked a new peak in the enthusiastic support that Egyptian judges at all levels have shown for the military takeover.
Angry Morsi supporters ransacked several churches, blaming Egypt’s Christian minority for backing the takeover, and assaulted at least one local police headquarters. “We have never heard of anything of this magnitude before inside or outside of Egypt that was within a judicial system as opposed to a mass execution,” said Karim Medhat Ennarah, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who specializes in criminal justice.
The 529 defendants sentenced on Monday were convicted of attacking the police station, killing an officer and trying to kill two others during the rioting, the state newspaper Al Ahram reported. The newspaper said that the verdict came at the start of the second session of the trial, and that sixteen defendants were acquitted. “It is quite ridiculous,” he said, arguing that it would be impossible to prove that 500 people each played a meaningful role in the killing of a single police officer, especially after just one or two short sessions of the trial. “Clearly this is an attempt to intimidate and terrorize the opposition, and specifically the Islamist opposition, but why would the judge get so deeply involved in politics up to this point?”
The London office of the Muslim Brotherhood, acting on behalf of the outlawed Egyptian branch, said in a statement that the group would seek to appeal, calling the decision “a clear violation of all norms of humane and legal justice.” The verdict was the latest in a string of harsh and speedy sentences against Islamist supporters of the deposed president, including several sentences of 17 years in prison that were handed down after a 10-day trial of a group of student protesters. In Minya, another mass trial of 600 defendants accused of sacking a different police station is set to begin Tuesday. Mr. Tammam, the lawyer, said the same judge is expected to hear the new case. News reports said Mohamed Badie, the jailed spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, was named as one of the defendants, although he was believed to be in Cairo at the time.
The Egyptian government, evidently trying to pre-empt outrage at the verdict, issued its own statement emphasizing that “the Egyptian judiciary is entirely independent and is not influenced in any way by the executive branch.” It noted that “the sentence was issued by an independent court after careful study of the case,” and that the decision is “only the first verdict in the trial process,” including appeals to higher courts. Even though experts said the death sentences issued Monday were almost certain to be reduced, “the staggering harshness and speed of the verdict still shows how profoundly the basic institutions of the Egyptian state are malfunctioning,” Nathan Brown, an expert on the Egyptian judiciary at George Washington University, wrote in an email about the decision. “Mindless repression still seems to be the order of the day.”
Scholars said the verdict appeared to be without precedent in Egypt, in part because it was issued by a regular court rather than by a military tribunal or other special security panel. He noted that President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the military strongman who set the template for the Arab world, set up special tribunals for the show trials he used to jail thousands of Islamists and execute many of their leaders as he consolidated power 60 years ago. But this time the regular judiciary once considered a beachhead of liberalism under decades of authoritarianism was eagerly collaborating.
Sixty years ago, President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the military strongman who set the template for the Arab world, jailed thousands of Islamists and executed many of their leaders as he consolidated power. But he set up special tribunals outside the regular judiciary for his show trials. “Toward the end of his life, Nasser is even said to have told a group of judges that he did it that way to avoid implicating them in what he felt he had to do,” Professor Brown said. But in the new crackdown, he said, the “enthusiasm” of some parts of the judiciary “is undermining its international reputation.”
“Toward the end of his life, Nasser is even said to have told a group of judges that he did it that way to avoid implicating them in what he felt he had to do,” said Professor Brown of George Washington. He called the verdict “a sign of how much at least some parts of the judiciary are fully on board with the new order indeed, their enthusiasm is undermining its international reputation.” Analysts suggested that the judges might be caught up in the fervor of animosity toward the Brotherhood that has swept other segments of society especially the government bureaucracy since Mr. Morsi’s ouster. But others said it was also possible that judges might be acting on instructions from security officials, moving voluntarily to curry favor with them, or merely exacting their own revenge on local foes who threatened them.
The conviction on Monday followed the release on bail the previous day of a celebrated activist and blogger, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who had been jailed for three months on charges of organizing an unauthorized protest in Cairo. He continues to await trial and a possible jail sentence. The events at issue in the case took place last August, about six weeks after the military takeover, when security forces used deadly force to disperse huge sit-ins. The crackdowns set off a backlash against the police around the country, and Minya was the scene of some of the worst violence.
Also on Monday, another court in Cairo continued the trial of several journalists for the pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera who have been charged with broadcasting false reports of unrest in Egypt as part of an Islamist conspiracy to bring down the new government. At least one of the Egyptian journalists has been imprisoned since August. Angry Morsi supporters ransacked several churches, accusing the Christian minority of backing the takeover, and they also assaulted several local police stations.
Three others detained in December worked for Al Jazeera’s English-language affiliate, including Peter Greste, an Australian who previously worked for the BBC, and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, a Canadian citizen who previously worked as a producer for CNN. Mr. Fahmy’s arm was injured and in a sling at the time of his arrest, and his family says that because of negligent medical treatment in prison he has now lost the ability to move it. Appearing at the hearing Monday in the metal cage used to hold defendants in Egyptian criminal courts, Mr. Fahmy could be seen using his teeth to try to remove his white prison jacket because his right arm was immobile. The 529 defendants sentenced on Monday were convicted of attacking the police station in Matay as well as killing an officer there and trying to kill two others, the state newspaper Al Ahram reported. The newspaper said that 16 defendants were acquitted.
Al Jazeera’s coverage is notably sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood; indeed, its Arabic-language affiliate is the only news outlet available in Egypt in that language that does not support the takeover. But the court session was devoted to bickering between prosecutors and defense lawyers over the details of whether the defendants had the proper official permits for their telecommunications equipment, with no discussion of the core charges of conspiring with the Islamists against the state. The London office of the Muslim Brotherhood, speaking on behalf of the outlawed Egyptian branch, said in a statement that the group would appeal, calling the decision “a clear violation of all norms of humane and legal justice.”
Two police officers called as witnesses said they did not remember many facts of the case, and a judge suspended the trial until March 31. “They seem to be suffering from collective amnesia,” Mr. Greste said through the cage during a break in the trial. “We have been inside for three months, and we have not seen a single shred of evidence against us.” The Egyptian government issued its own statement emphasizing that “the Egyptian judiciary is entirely independent and is not influenced in any way by the executive branch.” It noted that “the sentence was issued by an independent court after careful study of the case,” and that the decision is “only the first verdict in the trial process,” including appeals to higher courts.
Monday’s decision in Minya may indicate a determination by prosecutors or judges to deal more harshly with Islamists in the places where they constitute the most serious threat to the new order. Those in Minya who wanted to cheer the verdict did so openly, without fear of reprisal from their once-domineering Islamist neighbors. “Sentencing 529 to death is not too much for what they did to some police stations and churches,” said Mina Ramzi, 24, a Coptic Christian courthouse clerk sitting in a street cafe. “It is a statement to anybody who might think about doing anything like that again.”
The decision also comes as Egypt is awaiting a formal announcement of a presidential run by Field Marshal Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the defense minister, who led Mr. Morsi’s ouster. Field Marshal Sisi has given every indication that an announcement is imminent. Election authorities appear to be awaiting his announcement before setting an election date, and several would-be challengers have dropped out of the race on the premise that it will be slanted in his favor. Parliamentary elections are expected to follow, and the military-led government may seek to keep a tight lid on the Islamist opposition until those polls have been completed. Several Islamists, speaking on the condition of anonymity, vowed that anger at the verdict would provide new impetus to the protests.
But many also acknowledged that fear of the resurgent police had held them in check. “The security is too tight,” said a member of the local university staff after the march Monday night. “I am 38 years old, and I have never seen anything like these death sentences anywhere in the world. Only in Egypt.”