Egyptian opposition considers taking Sisi to international courts

The Egyptian Revolutionary Council, an anti-Sisi regime group, has said it can take the case of the death of former president Mohammed Morsi and other prisoners to international courts.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Russia–Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia October 23, 2019.
Reuters

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Russia–Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia October 23, 2019.

The Egyptian Revolutionary Council (ERC), one of the groups in opposition to the rule of General Abdel Fattah al Sisi, has urged UN authorities to further investigate former president Mohammed Morsi’s death and the deaths of other political prisoners.

Sisi came to power through a coup in 2013 when he removed Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Morsi.

The ERC’s call comes after the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner released a highly critical report of Sisi’s conduct in Egypt, raising questions about the deaths of Morsi and other political prisoners, calling for a comprehensive investigation over the incidents and the prosecution of those responsible. 

Morsi died under suspicious circumstances during a courtroom hearing on June 17of this year. 

AP

Former President Mohammed Morsi is pictured behind Egyptian bars before his suspicious death in a courtroom hearing on June 17, 2019.

“Irrespective of individual Egyptian’s political ideology or belief, Dr Morsi represented the very first time Egyptians exercised their democratic right to elect a president of their choosing,” said Dr Maha Azzam, the head of the ERC, in a statement.  

“His death, therefore, is an affront to all Egyptian citizens and is a crime against their sovereignty. We intend to pursue all those responsible for torture and murder of the president and political dissidents in Egypt by all legal means and bring them to justice.”  

Like the UN experts of the report, Guernica 37, a London-based legal team working on behalf of Morsi family and the ERC, has also called on the UN and other international agencies to investigate “the unlawful death of Morsi and all other prisoners, who died since 2012”. 

If the investigation finds more evidence on the use of torture as a method to intentionally kill political prisoners, the ERC will seek to bring the case to both national and international courts, according to the statement of Guernica 37. 

“Finally, we call on the member states of the United Nations who have signed the Convention Against Torture (to which Egypt is a signatory) to urge Egypt, through all appropriate means, to immediately cease from what is effectively their practice of torture and allow medical and humanitarian aid to reach all political detainees in Egyptian jails,” the Guernica 37 statement urged. 

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