State Department Protests Death Sentence for Muslim Brotherhood Leader as 'Unconscionable'

The State Department was up in arms Monday about the latest Egyptian court ruling against the Muslim Brotherhood, in which leader Mohamed Badie was among 683 sentenced to death for attacking a police station and killing an officer.

Last month, 529 death sentences were handed down to Muslim Brotherhood supporters in the murder of a police commander. Mostafa El-Attar, deputy commander of the Matay district police station, suffered a head injury as rioters surrounded his police station. News crews in the area showed angry protesters trying to attack him even as he was dying.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said at the time that they were “pretty shocked” by the ruling.

On Monday, a Minya court convicted Badie and the others of killing police officer Mamdouh Kotb Mohamed Kotb after a Muslim Brotherhood demonstration. They were also found guilty of committing violence, rioting, destroying public and private property, attacking police officers, and inciting violence, according to Al-Ahram.

In addition to the new death sentences handed down, 37 were upheld from the March ruling, which State Department press secretary Jen Psaki called “unconscionable.”

“The United States is deeply concerned by today’s Egyptian court actions related to another mass trial and preliminary death sentences as well as the banning of the April 6 Youth Movement activities,” she said in a statement.

“…As the Secretary has said, it is impossible to believe that such proceedings could satisfy even the most basic standards of justice, let alone meet Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law. We again urge Egyptian authorities to remedy the situation and reverse these court rulings and ensure due process for the accused on the merits of individual cases. We continue to urge the Egyptian Government to suspend future mass trials of Egyptians.”

Psaki argued that “these court decisions run counter to the most basic democratic principles and foster the instability, extremism, and radicalization that Egypt’s interim Government says it seeks to resolve.”

“We urge the Egyptian Government to demonstrate – through actions rather than words – its support for the universal human rights and freedoms and democratic, accountable governance that the Egyptian people continue to demand,” she said.