Post-coup Egypt ruled by US, Israel

Q: Mr. Salem, you just said that they are concerned, the government is concerned about what the judiciary does. Do you think that it is normal for over 500 people to be sentenced to death in one take, in one court sitting?
 
Salem: Well, from my side, I would say that it’s an abuse of law and if you will respect the law, you should apply it regardless of who is the defendant. You cannot say like the other gentleman said that because they are bad, we have to do this to them using the law. The law should be impartial and having the law impartial, and having the elections impartial means that you don’t judge who is good and who is not and if you see him good for running the country, you abuse the law and you abuse the elections.
 
In this case, you see the army acting as if they have the right to manipulate the law and to manipulate elections. If you use the law in order just to sentence all these people to death on circumstantial issues, where the due course of law would not go to that extent, it means that you say the law should be in our hands to be applied in whatever way we wish. This judiciary is supposed to be supervising the elections. If they are so loyal to the regime of the army like this in applying the law, they will be even more loyal in rigging the elections for the military ruler to come to power.
 
This means you are just saying I’m using force and abusing law. And how come you just say I see this person fit because he abuses the law and he uses force and he is serving certain interests that are totally not in the interests of the Egyptian people who give very free vote to the president who is still the legitimate president of this country named Mohamed Morsi.
 
Q: Let’s cross back over to Cairo. Mr. Salem, your take on what some of our viewers commented on. Who do you think is really ruling Egypt?
 
Salem: Egypt has lost its independence with the coup that took place on July 3 [2013]. And it has totally lost its independence because it became ruled by the super power, the United States, and Israel. And US is working for securing the Israeli interests and the Israeli security, using the Egyptian army itself and this is a very critical issue.
 
When the gentleman there said that the Egyptian people did not want either of the two candidates, the fact is people wanted Morsi more than any other in the first round and he came higher than any other candidate. There were other 12, and he came once again higher than the military and state-backed general [Ahmed] Shafiq. So when you speak about people wanting, people voice, and people’s say who they want through the elections.
 
On another level, there is another illogical thing when you say that the verdict is not final, it means it’s only a tool to threaten those people, to pressure those people. We will kill you if you don’t submit and if you don’t accept the coup. The issue is that the upcoming elections is only trying to give legitimacy to the one who is the person who did the coup. Trying to legitimize a coup is a very nasty game and you should know that the United States is playing on legitimizing this regime, because it serves its interests and that of Israel. The public, who voiced themselves on Facebook and elsewhere, and even with a very nasty hashtag against this person [former military chief Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi, they are the ones who can vote and they are the ones who can say. They will never allow real, free elections, because it will not play for the interests of Israel or the United States.
 
Q: Your take. Our guest said who is killing these protesters? Now, who is responsible, you think, at this point in time for as he has said, every day we are seeing more and more Egyptians being killed?
 
Salem: Well, people are not being killed in a civil war between a civil group and another civil group. People are being killed by the bullets of the police and army, and there is a whole army campaign in Sinai killing people. There was a big campaign of army and police in Raba killing the people and this means that they will continue killing in order to stay in power. They will continue killing in order to secure their interests and power and the interests of the one that they are serving interests. And because of this, if the gentleman just says it’s known who is going to win, it means you are just blocking the way for anything else. It means that you have decided that this person will have a kind of a theatrical show of something called elections and then the man who did the coup becomes the president after what he calls elections.
 
When someone does a coup and comes to power, this is totally against the will of the people and on that, you cannot say the Egyptian people are poor and we should help them. They were being helped as you said by the Muslim Brotherhood and the other Islamists. Now we have cut that, because you said that giving people this kind of charity is giving the brotherhood legitimacy in the streets and you want to cut this legitimacy. You don’t even allow people to stress their own views and sentiments if they raise these four fingers of Raba. This means the whole thing is in very mockery of democracy. It’s just cutting things and more than that, the gentleman is saying that the people failed to protect, if the brotherhood used arms and ammunition to protect the people of Raba, it would have been a civil war. But they were peaceful protesters. They continued to be peaceful protesters for the attitude of the court. Every court like this shows the freedom fighter speaking to the people and he and everybody with him, like [Nelson] Mandela, speaking to the consciences of the world, see who is being put to trial by that coup regime.
 
Q: What will it take to bring security back to your country? What do you see in the near future?
 
Salem: Well, for my sake, I think democracy and freedom of the people, freedom of expression, allowing people to express and allowing people to choose, is the thing that brings security. Security is a psychological thing that happens when people feel that they have every right and they can exercise the right, but if you say “don’t oppose, don’t object. You will go to court. We will sentence you for death and then we will negotiate it on your life...,” this will never give people security and with the loss of security, you will lose the economy, you will lose the development. You will lose everything. That’s what all military regimes fail. That of Ataturk failed and that of Mubarak failed and that of others failed.