Human Rights Organizations Protest Court Conviction of MB Leaders

Human Rights Organizations Protest Court Conviction of MB Leaders

The military court at the Haikstep handed down its harsh jail sentences against 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood last Tuesday, a verdict that was condemned by several international human rights organizations.


Human Right Watch (HRW) issued a statement on April 16 calling the guilty vedict  “transparently a political verdict from a court that should not have any authority to try civilians”.


The statement highlighted several of the violations committed by the Egyptian government; the most recent was preventing defense lawyers and the public from attending the last session where  the verdict was announced and resorting to heavy-handed methods by the police against the detainees’ families.


“Once an ordinary court ruled that these men hadn’t committed any crimes, President Mubarak had to turn them to a military tribunal to get the verdict he wanted” said Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.


The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) also expressed its great concern about Tuesday’s ruling, calling on the Egyptian President to intervene and cancel these unfair verdicts, and to send the Muslim Brotherhood defendants back to civil courts as civilians should never be reffered to military courts.


EOHR condemned the continuation of the series of military trials for civilians  calling the Egyptian government to respect the constitution which gives the right to any detainee to due process through an ordinary civil judge and never be tried in non-civilian courts.


 Amnesty International issued a statement calling the verdict “perversion of justice”, adding that it leaves only little doubt that the Egyptian authorities are determined to undermine what has become the main opposition group in the country.


Trying civilians before military courts, whose judges are serving members of the military, flouts international standards of fair trial and is inherently unjust, regardless of whether the defendants are allowed a right of appeal or not,‌ said Amnesty International.