Dissent as Murder: Egyptian Court Sentences 529 Men to Death in One Ruling

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Dissent as Murder: Egyptian Court Sentences 529 Men to Death in One Ruling

Egyptian court sentences 529 Muslim Brotherhood members to death

An Egyptian court sentenced 529 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death for murder and other offences on Monday, in a sharp escalation of a crackdown on the movement that is likely to fuel instability.

Family members stood outside the courthouse screaming after the verdict — the biggest mass death sentence handed out in Egypt‘s modern history, defense lawyers said.

Turmoil has deepened since the army overthrew Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, in July. Security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood members in the streets and arrested thousands.

Human rights groups said Monday’s verdict suggested the authorities intended to tighten their squeeze on the opposition.

State television reported the sentences without comment. A government spokesman and other government officials did not immediately respond to calls.

Most of the defendants at Monday’s hearing were detained and charged with carrying out attacks during clashes which erupted in the southern province of Minya after the forced dispersal of two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo on August 14.

Islamist militants have also stepped up assaults on the police and army since Morsi’s ouster, killing hundreds and carrying out high profile operations against senior interior ministry officials.

“The court has decided to sentence to death 529 defendants, and 16 were acquitted,” defense lawyer Ahmed al-Sharif told Reuters. The condemned men can appeal against the ruling.

The Muslim Brotherhood, largely driven underground, responded by calling for the “downfall of military rule” on its official website.

Mohamed Mahsoub, who served as minister of legal affairs under Morsi, described the court’s decision “a ruling calling for the execution of justice” on his Facebook page.

Supporters set fire to a nearby school in protest, state television reported, though security officials said they had received no reports of unrest.

‘The quickest case’

The charges against the group, on trial in Minya since Saturday, include violence, inciting murder, storming a police station, attacking persons and damaging public and private property.

“This is the quickest case and the number sentenced to death is the largest in the history of the judiciary,” said lawyer Nabil Abdel Salam, who defends some Brotherhood leaders including Morsi.

“A second year student in the faculty of law would never issue this verdict. There are a lot of flaws in this verdict. I think maybe an appeal could be successful but nothing is predictable,” said Mohamed Zaree, program manager, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

HA Hellyer, an Egypt expert and fellow at American think-tank the Brookings Institution, said he doubted the sentences would be carried out.

“Nevertheless, the very issuing of the sentence itself is quite significant,” he added.

On Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie, and 682 others will face trial on charges of incitement to kill.

Attacks

Only 123 of the defendants were in court. The rest were either released, out on bail or on the run.

“When the trial starts on Saturday and it is just a procedural hearing, and the judge doesn’t listen to any lawyers or witnesses and doesn’t even call the defendants, you are before a group of thugs and not the judiciary,” Walid, a relative of one of the defendants, said by phone.

It was not possible to confirm his account of the proceedings independently.

The government has declared the Brotherhood a “terrorist” group. The organization says it is committed to peaceful activism.

Analysts say some of its members could turn violent if the state keeps up pressure on the movement, which won the vast majority of elections since a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Egyptian authorities make no distinction between the Brotherhood and hardcore militant groups based in the Sinai peninsula who pose a major security challenge to the state despite army offensives against their fighters.

Morsi, Mubarak’s successor as president, and other top Brotherhood leaders are on trial on a range of charges and accuse the military of staging a coup and undermining democracy.

The army says it was acting on behalf of the Egyptian people, who took to the streets in their millions to call for Morsi’s resignation.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/140324/egyptian-court-sentences-529-muslim-brotherhood-membe

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Egyptian court sentences 529 Muslim Brotherhood members to death

China sentences legal activist to 4 years

By Louise Watt, AP
January 27, 2014, 12:26 am TWN

BEIJING–A Beijing court on Sunday sentenced a legal scholar and founder of a social movement to four years in prison for disrupting order in public places, a case that the U.S. government and other critics say is retribution for his push to fight corruption and create equal educational opportunities.

Amid tight security, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the verdict against Xu Zhiyong, founder of the loosely knit New Citizens movement, in a blow to the group and China’s rights activism.

Hundreds of police officers — both in uniform and in plainclothes — were stationed around the courthouse. They pushed away foreign journalists and took away Xu’s lawyer when he attempted to speak to the media, but not before he denounced the process as “very unfair.”

Xu told “the court that the last shred of dignity of China’s rule of law was destroyed today,” lawyer Zhang Qingfang said before he was escorted away by police and shoved into a police van.

Xu’s prosecution is part of a broader crackdown since last spring on dissent, including the silencing and detentions of influential bloggers and advocates for minority rights in Tibetan and Muslim Uighur areas.

Earlier this month, the authorities took away Ilham Tohti, a Uighur scholar and outspoken critic of China’s ethnic policies. A police statement accused the university professor of separatism, inciting ethnic hatred and advocating violence to oppose China’s rule over the far west region of Xinjiang, home to the ethnic minority of Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs.

Xu’s verdict drew widespread criticism, with U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying in a statement that the U.S. was “deeply disappointed” and that Beijing should release Xu.

Amnesty International called the imprisonment a travesty and Human Rights Watch said convicting Xu “makes a mockery” of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s crusade against corruption.

No Tolerance for Any Organized Movements

The ruling Communist Party is wary of any form of social force such as Xu’s New Citizens movement because of its potential to threaten the party’s rule at the grassroots level. Several other activists have stood trial or are scheduled to appear in court — all on the same charge of disrupting public order.

NEXT ARTICLE
Default looms in China’s ‘shadow banking’ system

	A police van drives past the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, where legal scholar and founder of the New Citizens movement Xu Zhiyong appeared for his verdict in Beijing on Sunday, Jan. 26. Amid tight security, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the verdict against Xu Zhiyong, founder of the loosely knit New Citizens movement. (AP) Enlarge Photo

China Post Online – China News

China sentences legal activist to 4 years

China sentences legal activist to 4 years

By Louise Watt, AP
January 27, 2014, 12:26 am TWN

BEIJING–A Beijing court on Sunday sentenced a legal scholar and founder of a social movement to four years in prison for disrupting order in public places, a case that the U.S. government and other critics say is retribution for his push to fight corruption and create equal educational opportunities.

Amid tight security, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the verdict against Xu Zhiyong, founder of the loosely knit New Citizens movement, in a blow to the group and China’s rights activism.

Hundreds of police officers — both in uniform and in plainclothes — were stationed around the courthouse. They pushed away foreign journalists and took away Xu’s lawyer when he attempted to speak to the media, but not before he denounced the process as “very unfair.”

Xu told “the court that the last shred of dignity of China’s rule of law was destroyed today,” lawyer Zhang Qingfang said before he was escorted away by police and shoved into a police van.

Xu’s prosecution is part of a broader crackdown since last spring on dissent, including the silencing and detentions of influential bloggers and advocates for minority rights in Tibetan and Muslim Uighur areas.

Earlier this month, the authorities took away Ilham Tohti, a Uighur scholar and outspoken critic of China’s ethnic policies. A police statement accused the university professor of separatism, inciting ethnic hatred and advocating violence to oppose China’s rule over the far west region of Xinjiang, home to the ethnic minority of Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs.

Xu’s verdict drew widespread criticism, with U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying in a statement that the U.S. was “deeply disappointed” and that Beijing should release Xu.

Amnesty International called the imprisonment a travesty and Human Rights Watch said convicting Xu “makes a mockery” of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s crusade against corruption.

No Tolerance for Any Organized Movements

The ruling Communist Party is wary of any form of social force such as Xu’s New Citizens movement because of its potential to threaten the party’s rule at the grassroots level. Several other activists have stood trial or are scheduled to appear in court — all on the same charge of disrupting public order.

NEXT ARTICLE
Default looms in China’s ‘shadow banking’ system

	A police van drives past the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, where legal scholar and founder of the New Citizens movement Xu Zhiyong appeared for his verdict in Beijing on Sunday, Jan. 26. Amid tight security, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the verdict against Xu Zhiyong, founder of the loosely knit New Citizens movement. (AP) Enlarge Photo

China Post Online – China News

China sentences legal activist to 4 years

China sentences legal activist to 4 years

By Louise Watt, AP
January 27, 2014, 12:26 am TWN

BEIJING–A Beijing court on Sunday sentenced a legal scholar and founder of a social movement to four years in prison for disrupting order in public places, a case that the U.S. government and other critics say is retribution for his push to fight corruption and create equal educational opportunities.

Amid tight security, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the verdict against Xu Zhiyong, founder of the loosely knit New Citizens movement, in a blow to the group and China’s rights activism.

Hundreds of police officers — both in uniform and in plainclothes — were stationed around the courthouse. They pushed away foreign journalists and took away Xu’s lawyer when he attempted to speak to the media, but not before he denounced the process as “very unfair.”

Xu told “the court that the last shred of dignity of China’s rule of law was destroyed today,” lawyer Zhang Qingfang said before he was escorted away by police and shoved into a police van.

Xu’s prosecution is part of a broader crackdown since last spring on dissent, including the silencing and detentions of influential bloggers and advocates for minority rights in Tibetan and Muslim Uighur areas.

Earlier this month, the authorities took away Ilham Tohti, a Uighur scholar and outspoken critic of China’s ethnic policies. A police statement accused the university professor of separatism, inciting ethnic hatred and advocating violence to oppose China’s rule over the far west region of Xinjiang, home to the ethnic minority of Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs.

Xu’s verdict drew widespread criticism, with U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying in a statement that the U.S. was “deeply disappointed” and that Beijing should release Xu.

Amnesty International called the imprisonment a travesty and Human Rights Watch said convicting Xu “makes a mockery” of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s crusade against corruption.

No Tolerance for Any Organized Movements

The ruling Communist Party is wary of any form of social force such as Xu’s New Citizens movement because of its potential to threaten the party’s rule at the grassroots level. Several other activists have stood trial or are scheduled to appear in court — all on the same charge of disrupting public order.

NEXT ARTICLE
Default looms in China’s ‘shadow banking’ system

	A police van drives past the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, where legal scholar and founder of the New Citizens movement Xu Zhiyong appeared for his verdict in Beijing on Sunday, Jan. 26. Amid tight security, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the verdict against Xu Zhiyong, founder of the loosely knit New Citizens movement. (AP) Enlarge Photo

China Post Online – China News

China sentences legal activist to 4 years

Number of US Prison Inmates Serving Life Sentences Hits New Record

A report released by The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit criminal justice advocacy group, reveals that the number of prisoners serving life sentences in the US state and federal prisons reached a new record of close to 160,000 in 2012. Of these, 49,000 are serving life without possibility of parole, an increase of 22.2 percent since 2008.

The study’s findings place in relief figures being promoted by the federal government indicating a reduction in the overall number of prisoners in federal and state facilities, from 1.62 million to 1.57 million between 2009 and 2012.

Ashley Nellis, senior research analyst with the Sentencing Project, argues that the rise in prisoners serving life sentences has to do with political posturing over “tough on crime” measures. “Unfortunately, lifers are typically excluded from most sentencing reform conversations because there’s this sense that it’s not going to sell, politically or with the public,” Nellis says. “Legislators are saying, ‘We have to throw somebody under the bus.’”

At 40,362 California holds a quarter of lifers, followed by Florida (12,549) and New York (10,245), Texas (9,031), Georgia (7,938), Ohio (6,075), Michigan (5,137), Pennsylvania (5,104) and Louisiana (4,657).

Sources:

David Krajicek, “Hard Time: Prisons Are Packed With More Lifers Than Ever,”, WhoWhatWhy.com, September 18, 2013, http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/09/18/hard-time-prisons-are-packed-with-more-lifers-than-ever/.

Ashley Nellis, “Life Goes On: The Historic Rise in Life Sentences in America,” The Sentencing Project, September 2013, http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Life Goes On 2013.pdf.

Student Researcher: Isabella Diaz (Florida Atlantic University)

Faculty Evaluator: James F. Tracy (Florida Atlantic University)

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Number of US Prison Inmates Serving Life Sentences Hits New Record

Egypt Sentences 21 Women, Then Arrests Their Lawyer

(Newser) – As protests rage on in Egypt, the lawyer at the helm of the defense team representing 21 young female protesters was today arrested at home for “incitement of violence,” CNN reports. On Wednesday, 14 of the women—mostly aged 18 to 22, the AP notes—were sentenced to 11 years following their participation in a pro-Mohamed Morsi demonstration. Seven girls, meanwhile, were sentenced to juvenile detention until they turn 18. Charges included illegal gathering, weapons possession, and thuggery; rights groups called the ruling “politicized.”

“I can’t separate his arrest from the girls’ case,” says another lawyer defending the women, whose appeal is set to be heard Saturday. “This means that any lawyer who comes close to the case will be detained.” Though the women were clamoring for Morsi’s reinstatement, he added that the lawyer, Ahmed El-Hamrawy, “was part of Morsi’s opposition. He demonstrated against him on June 30, but he’s been involved in defending freedoms since July 3 … He’s being punished for that.” Authorities have long cracked down on Islamists who supported Morsi, but lately, they’ve been targeting young, secular demonstrators, the AP notes. A new rule bans gatherings of more than 10 people without prior notice.

World from Newser

Egypt Sentences 21 Women, Then Arrests Their Lawyer

DOJ Admits "Unintended Consequences" in Drug War, May Reduce Sentences

NPR

“The war on drugs is now 30, 40 years old,” Holder says. “There have been a lot of unintended consequences. There’s been a decimation of certain communities, in particular communities of color.”

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DOJ Admits "Unintended Consequences" in Drug War, May Reduce Sentences

Bangladesh Sentences Former Islamist Party Chief to Life

DHAKA — A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal convicted and sentenced a top Islamist party leader to life imprisonment on Monday, as violence broke out across the country between police and his supporters.

Ghulam Azam, 91, the former head of Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty on charges of planning, conspiracy, incitement and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity during a 1971 war for independence from Pakistan, lawyers and tribunal officials said.

It was the tribunal’s fifth conviction since January.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Ruma Paul; Editing by Robert Birsel)

NYT > Global Home

Bangladesh Sentences Former Islamist Party Chief to Life

Bangladesh Sentences Former Islamist Party Chief to Life

DHAKA — A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal convicted and sentenced a top Islamist party leader to life imprisonment on Monday, as violence broke out across the country between police and his supporters.

Ghulam Azam, 91, the former head of Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty on charges of planning, conspiracy, incitement and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity during a 1971 war for independence from Pakistan, lawyers and tribunal officials said.

It was the tribunal’s fifth conviction since January.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Ruma Paul; Editing by Robert Birsel)

NYT > Global Home

Bangladesh Sentences Former Islamist Party Chief to Life