Ljevaković: Death sentences by Egyptian court are a farce

The Egyptian court ruling sentencing 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death three days ago is an unprecedented judicial farce and persecution of people, according to Enes Ljevaković, professor at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences.

- It is practically a form of collective trial of people for their political and religious beliefs. This is condemnable, just as international human rights organizations have condemned such an inappropriate judicial act and farce of a legal procedure. I hope that higher judicial instances will review, or rather overturn, such an unprecedented decision – Ljevaković told the BiH news agency Patria (NAP).

Of the 529 sentenced, 153 are in prison, while the rest have been released, are out on bail, or are on the run. Only 16 were acquitted. The convicted can appeal this verdict.

- As far as we could follow, not all convicted individuals had adequate defense, they did not have the right to lawyers, they were tried in absentia and could not express their opinions. This is likely intended to intimidate people – Ljevaković believes.

Most of them were arrested during clashes that broke out in the southern province of al-Minya, 250 kilometers from Cairo, after the dispersal of Muslim Brotherhood protests in Cairo due to the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi from power in the summer of last year. Incidentally, Morsi was the first democratically elected president in the history of Egypt. The indictment accused them of violence in which two police officers were killed, as well as attacks on public and private property during last year's protests. There have been numerous trials of Morsi's Islamists since then, but this is the first for such a large group.