Egypt: Authorities Sentence Morsi and Staff Despite UN Opinion Asking For Release

On 22 April 2015, Alkarama sent a follow-up communication to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regarding the sentencing, on 21 April 2015, of Mohamed Morsi and members of his staff to 20 years in prison, despite an Opinion adopted by the WGAD on 13 November 2013 finding "the deprivation of liberty of Dr. Morsi and his advisors mentioned above is arbitrary." The Opinion followed an urgent appeal sent by Alkarama on 15 July 2013 in which Alkarama considered the arrest of Mohamed Morsi and his team as a violation, not only of their right to liberty and security, but also of their right to fair trial procedures, and called upon the WGAD to intervene to protect them from torture and secure their release.

Mohamed Morsi, Asaad El Sheikha and Ahmed Abdel Atty were sentenced after a trial that did not respect any of the fair trial procedures, on charges of inciting to the arrest, torture and use of force against protesters during clashes that occurred in front of the presidential palace on 5 December 2012. As underlined in the WGAD Opinion No. 39/2013, "pursuant to articles 9 and 14 of the ICCPR to which Egypt is a party, anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him; shall be entitles to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful; and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing."

However, none of the three men and other members of Morsi's staff detained with them were given any legal basis to justify their detention, were notified of the charges against them or were brought before a judge; all were placed under house arrest at the premises of the army and under high security and were unable to communicate with their families or lawyers. As for Mohamed Morsi, he was detained incommunicado, allegedly in a fake civilian prison at the edge of a naval base, which in itself characterises a form of arbitrary detention.

As for the trial that led to the three men's sentencing, it was marked by numerous irregularities, including the fact that their lawyers were not able to access their entire files because the investigations were led by the intelligence services; or that the testimonies prepared by the defence were not taken into account by the court when it rendered its decision, thus basing its decision solely on the prosecution's unchallenged evidence. "With such decision the authorities have shown two things: that the judiciary is clearly not independent from the executive branch and renders politically-motivated decisions when asked to, but also that they would take all measures necessary to ensure that the Muslim Brotherhood members, be they high or low profile ones, are neutralised," said Rachid Mesli, Alkarama Legal Director.

"When you see that Mohamed Morsi is still facing other charges and that the authorities have opened new cases against him just hours after his sentencing, it seems clear that the authorities want to make sure that he stays in prison indefinitely," he continued.

In fact, Morsi is still prosecuted under new charges, such as that of having "collaborated with the Hamas and the Hezbollah," "colluded with Qatar," or "insulted the judiciary." Since 21 April 2015, he will also have to respond on charges of having planned and set up an armed sit-in on Rabaa al-Adawiya square on 14 July 2013, where more than 1,000 individuals were killed by the security forces, in what has been as a crime against humanity perpetrated by the military against Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

To the exception of Khaled Al Qazzaz – released in early 2015 but recently prevented from leaving Egypt with his family – and Abdelmageed Meshali – released on bail on 15 April 2015 – Mohamed Morsi and members of his staff, Ahmed Abdel Atty, Essam Al Haddad, Asaad El Sheikha and Ayman Ali are all detained incommunicado in Al'Aqrab ("the Scorpion") section of Tora prison, known as "Egypt's very own Guantanamo" and at high risk of torture and ill-treatment by the authorities for being Muslim Brotherhood members. The verdicts in their respective cases should be issued in the coming month.

To end the judicial harassment against these men, Alkarama urged once more the WGAD to intervene with the Egyptian authorities to ask them to implement its Opinion without delay and subsequently to drop all charges held against Mohamed Morsi and his staff and release them immediately.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1007 Ext: 810)