FILE-MOHAMED MURSI PROFILE Egyptian court seeks death sentence for former president Mursi

Record ID: 149696

  • Title: FILE-MOHAMED MURSI PROFILE Egyptian court seeks death sentence for former president Mursi
  • Date: 1st June 2015
  • Summary: MURSI SEATED NEXT TO MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S FIRST CHOICE AS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, KHAIRAT AL-SHATER, WHOSE WAS DISQUALIFIED FROM STANDING BY THE STATE ELECTION COMMITTEE CAIRO, EGYPT (FILE - APRIL 22, 2012) (REUTERS) MURSI WALKING THROUGH HOTEL LOBBY ACCOMPANIED BY AIDES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, MOHAMED MURSI, SPEAKING DURING
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA35JPXV1J03FHAPIBYPRE6K2N0
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Egypt's top Islamic authority is expected to issue the final ruling on Tuesday (June 1) on the death sentence sought by a court on May 16 for former president Mohamed Mursi and more than 100 other members of the Muslim Brotherhood in connection with a mass jail break in 2011.
    The court has also sought capital punishment for Brotherhood leader Khairat el-Shater and 15 others for conspiring with foreign militant groups against Egypt.
    The cases, like any capital sentences, was referred to Egypt's top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for an opinion before any executions can take place.
    Mursi, who was overthrown by the army after mass protests against his rule in 2013, stood defiant in a court cage in a blue prison outfit pumping his fists in the air before the sentences were read out.
    Human rights groups have accused Egyptian authorities of widespread abuses in a crackdown on Brotherhood supporters as well as secular activists, allegations they deny.
    Muslim Brotherhood official Amr Darrag condemned the court's decision and called on the international community to take action.
    After decades of repression under Egyptian autocrats, Mursi's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement won every election following the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in February 2011, eventually propelling Mursi to power.
    The U.S.-trained engineer's victory in the country's first free presidential election broke a tradition of domination by men from the armed forces, which had provided every Egyptian leader since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952.
    The euphoria that greeted the end of an era of presidents who ruled like pharaohs did not last long.
    Mursi promised a moderate Islamist agenda to steer Egypt into a new democratic era where autocracy would be replaced by transparent government that respected human rights and revived the fortunes of a powerful Arab state long in decline.
    The stocky, bespectacled Mursi told Egyptians he would deliver an "Egyptian renaissance with an Islamic foundation".
    Instead, he alienated millions who accused him of usurping powers, imposing the Brotherhood's conservative brand of Islam and mismanaging the economy, all of which he denied.
    The son of a peasant farmer was something of an accidental president, thrown into the race at the last moment by the disqualification on a technicality of millionaire businessman Khairat al-Shater, by far the group's preferred choice.
    Mursi is a civil engineer and lecturer with a doctorate from the University of Southern California. He has spoken of a simple childhood in a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqia, recalling how his mother taught him prayer and the Koran.
    In power, Mursi made the cardinal mistake in Egyptian politics; he antagonised the military. The army chief that Mursi appointed because he was known as a religious man, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, eventually turned on him.
    Detecting mass discontent in the streets, Sisi pushed Mursi to reach compromises with his political opponents. He refused, and instead reached out mainly to Islamists.
    Eventually millions took to the streets demanding that Mursi step down. After months of trying in vain to get the president to reach a power-sharing accommodation with his liberal, nationalist and left-wing opponents, Sisi, appeared on television on July 3 to announce the end of Mursi's troubled one-year presidency and plans for elections.
    A severe security crackdown has since left Mursi's Brotherhood in disarray. Riot police backed by army snipers crushed Cairo protest camps calling for his reinstatement, killing hundreds.
    Top Brotherhood leaders were rounded up, including the group's supreme guide and a court outlawed the group and ordered its assets seized. Some feared the army-backed government would bring back the iron-fisted rule of the Mubarak years, but most Egyptians backed Sisi.
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