Former Member of Parliament Dr. Dardery has recently sent a letter to President Biden against the execution of innocents in Egypt after Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld their death sentences
Dr. Abdul Mawgood Dardery, former spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party’s foreign relations committee and former member of parliament for Luxor, has sent a letter to President Biden against the likeliness of implementation of death sentences recently upheld by the Egyptian Court of Cassation of 12 people after unfair trial based on trumped-up cand politicized charges.
On his Facebook account, Dr. Dardery said he sent a letter to US President Joe Biden briefing him on the most recent death sentences against innocents. He said he received a reply to his letter from Biden, adding that he would “not comment now”!
Dr Dardery said the letter he received from President Biden read:
[Dear Dr. Dardery,Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about the death penalty. Hearing from passionate individuals like you inspires me every day, and I welcome the opportunity to respond to your letter.
Our country faces many challenges, and the road we will travel together will be one of the most difficult in our history. Despite these tough times, I have never been more optimistic for the future of America. I believe we are better positioned than any country in the world to lead in the 21st century not just by the example of our power but by the power of our example.
As we move forward to address the complex issues of our time, I encourage you to remain an active participant in helping write the next great chapter of the American story. We need your courage and dedication at this critical time, and we must meet this moment together as the United States of America. If we do that, I believe that our best days still lie ahead.
Sincerely, …]
On 14 June 2021, Egypt’s highest civilian court on Monday upheld death sentences for 12 senior Muslim Brotherhood figures over the 2013 Rab’a sit-in which ended with a massacre, where the army and security forces killed hundreds of protesters.
The ruling, which cannot be appealed, means the 12 men could face execution pending approval by Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. They include Abdul Rahman Al-Bar, commonly described as the group’s mufti or top religious scholar, Mohamed El-Beltagi, a former member of parliament, and Osama Yassin, a former minister.
Many Muslim Brotherhood figures have been sentenced to death in other cases related to the unrest that followed the military’s ousting of Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi in 2013, but the Court of Cassation ordered retrials.
Rights groups have documented a sharp rise in the number of executions in Egypt, with at least 51 carried out so far this year according to Amnesty International.
“Instead of continuing to escalate their use of the death penalty by upholding death sentences following convictions in grossly unfair mass trials Egyptian authorities must immediately establish an official moratorium on executions,” Amnesty said in a statement.
The recent ruling relates to a mass trial of hundreds of suspects accused of murder and incitement of violence during pro-Brotherhood protests at Rab’a al-Adawiya square in Cairo in the weeks after President Morsi’s overthrow.
In September 2018, an Egyptian criminal court sentenced 75 people to death and issued varying jail terms for more than 600 others. Many defendants were tried in absentia.
Forty-four of those sentenced to death appealed to the Court of Cassation. Thirty-one had their sentences changed to life in prison, while death sentences were upheld for 12 others.
A final defendant, the senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian, died in prison in Cairo in August 2020. Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, died in prison in 2019.
The court also upheld jail terms for many other defendants including a life sentence for Mohamed Badie, leader of the outlawed Brotherhood, and a 10-year jail term for Morsi’s son Osama, the judicial sources said.
