EGYPT
Written by R. León
Friday, 28 March 2014 12:44
An Egyptian court in the central city of Minya sentenced to death 529 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), accused of “acts of violence”, related to the death of a policeman and other violence that took place across the country since July.
The mass “trial” that preceded the sentence lasted just two days and the defendants’ right were not guaranteed. In fact, the court hearings were made in the absence of the majority of them. Of the 529 sentenced on Monday, only 153 are in custody.
This sentences had been handed down in the context of a more wide process. Nearly 700 other Muslim Brotherhood supporters, including Mohamed Badie, the supreme guide of the movement, are due in court on March 25. [1]
Facing this fact, we express our rejection to that sentence.
We are solidary with the repudiation of most workers and the Egyptian people against the MB, due to its disastrous neoliberal, repressive and servile government.
We also agree that the MB and Morsi should pay for their crimes against the people. However, a sentence of this nature can’t be accepted, because it indiscriminately affects hundreds of people without a fair trial.
With such measures, the regime tries to recover ground that it has been losing since the fall of Mubarak and to show “who rules” Egypt, with the aim of infusing terror to the whole mass movement.
Besides, this is happening in the framework of the reappearance of the organized working class in the political scene, who have been heading a wave of strikes for two months, involving more than 100 thousand workers from many cities and from the more diverse sectors (Mahalla textile workers, bus drivers, health workers, metal workers, civil servants, etc.).
The regime tries to divert the focus from this wave of strikes by sentencing hundreds of MB supporters. At the same time, it tries to regain prestige (which begins to be questioned by the workers) and to be better positioned to the next election, which is controlled by it and from where they can gather mass support. In the election the military can present themselves as the “saviors of the nation”: the repressors of the Muslim Brotherhood.
For these reasons, without supporting the demonstrations for Morsi’s return to the presidency and maintaining the demands for trial and punishment of all crimes committed by the MB leaders, the Egyptian mass movement should reject this sentence and maintain their struggle against the military dictatorship.
[1] The proceedings on Tuesday have been adjourned until April 28.