ISTANBUL
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Saturday an Egyptian court ruling that sought the death penalty for former Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi and others over charges of breaking out of an Egyptian prison during the 2011 revolution.
Speaking in Istanbul, Erdogan harshly criticized the decision, which sent Morsi and 105 codefendants to the Grand Mufti, Egypt's top religious authority, to consider the death penalty against them.
“Egypt has given a death sentence to an elected president with 52 percent of the votes, unfortunately,” Erdogan said. “Egypt is returning to old Egypt.”
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted by the military in July 2013 – after only one year in office – following mass protests against his rule.
He is the first president to be referred to the mufti in Egypt's history.
The opinion of the mufti is non-binding, but Egyptian law makes it necessary for judges to seek a religious point of view on any death sentence.
“The West, unfortunately, still does not reveal its stance against the coup leader Sisi,” Erdogan said. “While Western countries have been lifting the death penalty, they are watching the death sentences in Egypt in silence.”
Egyptian authorities had accused Morsi and 130 others of taking part in a mass jailbreak during Egypt’s 2011 revolution that ousted autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.
Last month, Morsi and 12 codefendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison each for allegedly mobilizing supporters in order to “intimidate, detain and torture” dozens of anti-Morsi protesters during clashes outside eastern Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012.
Morsi currently faces multiple criminal trials on charges that include espionage and “insulting the judiciary,” charges he says are politically motivated.
Since Morsi's ouster, Egyptian security forces have launched a relentless crackdown on dissent that has targeted both Islamists and secularists, leaving hundreds dead and thousands behind bars.
