Egypt’s Morsi trial marred by flaws: HRW
The Human Rights Watch has criticized Egyptian authorities for conducting an unfair and biased trial for the country's ousted president, saying the prosecution was marred by flaws.
In a statement released on Sunday, the New York-based rights organization said the trial of Mohamed Morsi was "compromised by due process violations, the appearance of bias and an absence of conclusive evidence”.
The prosecution heavily relied on the testimony of military and police officers and appeared to have been politically motivated against Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, said the case “was founded on the conjecture that Morsi was responsible simply because of his relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Whitson further accused the prosecutors of neglecting the deaths of Brotherhood supporters in the 2012 clashes and disregarding the failure of security forces to intervene.
Meanwhile, Mohamed al-Damaty, a member of Morsi's defense team, noted that the team was not granted the right to regular consultations with the ousted president.
Another barrister, whose named was not mentioned in reports, also censured the authorities for keeping Morsi inside a soundproof glass barrier, which prevented him from communicating with his lawyers.
On April 21, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Morsi to 20 years in prison over deaths and torture of demonstrators outside his presidential palace some three years ago.
On December 5, 2012, violent clashes erupted between Morsi’s supporters and opponents in Cairo, leaving at least ten people dead. The fighting broke out after the country’s first democratically-elected president issued a controversial constitutional declaration in November of the same year to expand his powers.
In July 2013, Morsi was ousted in a military coup led by the former head of the armed forces and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Egypt’s military-backed government has been cracking down on any opposition since Morsi was ousted.
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