Islam Times - US ‘deeply concerned’ about Morsi’s death sentence: Official

Islam Times - The United States has expressed "deep concern" about death sentences issued by an Egyptian court for deposed president Mohamed Morsi and over 100 others for their role in a mass prison break during the 2011 revolution.

"We are deeply concerned by yet another mass death sentence handed down by an Egyptian court to more than 100 defendants, including former president Morsi," said a State Department official on Sunday.

The anonymous official noted that the US has “consistently spoken out against the practice of mass trials and sentences” in Egypt, which are not consistent with the country’s “international obligations and the rule of law."

On Saturday, a court in Egypt sentenced Morsi along with 105 others to death for the mass jailbreak during the country’s revolution against long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The death sentences are to be referred to the Grand Mufti, Egypt’s highest religious authority, for consultative review and the final decision will be pronounced on June 2. The Grand Mufti's verdict is non-binding.

The US official said that the sentences were preliminary and that Washington would continue efforts to insure justice and due process are observed in the country.

"We continue to stress the need for due process and individualized judicial processes for all Egyptians in the interests of justice," he stated.

Amnesty International also denounced the Egyptian court’s ruling on Saturday, calling it "a charade based on null and void procedures."

“The fact that he (Morsi) was held for months incommunicado without judicial oversight and that he didn’t have a lawyer to represent him during the investigations makes these trials nothing but a charade based on null and void procedures,” said Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program Said Boumedouha.

Back in April, Morsi was given a 20-year prison term in a separate trial on charges of protester deaths in 2012. The case stemmed from the deaths and torture of demonstrators outside Morsi’s presidential palace in December 2012.

In July 2013, Morsi, the country’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted in a military coup led by the former head of the armed forces and the current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.