The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mohammed Mursi

  • Mursi requests for medical test

    Mursi requests for medical test

    …Complains about prison food

    Egypt’s ousted former president, Mohamed Mursi, who has been in detention for two years, is to undergo a medical examination at his request after he complained about prison food, state media has said.

    Mursi, who has diabetes, described the meals served to him as “very bad,” and has refrained from eating prison food “because he senses it is not safe for him,” state news agency MENA reported.

    According to MENA, Mursi said that prison officials had denied his requests to receive food from outside the prison.

    Prison officials could not be reached for comment, Reuters reported.

    Mursi currently faces charges of giving state secrets to Qatar while president. The judge overseeing the case adjourned the hearing until Sunday and ordered that he be seen by two doctors, MENA said.

    Mursi, a senior member of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, was elected president in Egypt’s first competitive elections in 2012. He was removed from power by the army in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule.

    Authorities have since pursued a crackdown on Islamists that has seen hundreds killed and thousands detained.

    Mursi was sentenced to death earlier this year over a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising.

  • Mursi appeals against violence conviction

    Mursi appeals against violence conviction

    Former Egyptian President, Mohamed Mursi , will appeal against a conviction for violence, kidnapping and torture imposed by a court over the killing of protesters, his lawyers have said.

    Mursi and 12 other members of the Moslem Brotherhood, including senior figures Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian, were sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole on the charges in April, Reuters reports.

    Two others were jailed for 10 years without parole.

    Mursi, Egypt’s first freely-elected president, was toppled by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Since then he has faced several legal cases.

    Egypt, the most populous Arab country, has mounted a crackdown on Islamists. Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested since Mursi’s fall.

    Mursi’s defence lawyers asked the High Court, Egypt’s highest civilian court, to dismiss the jail sentences and order a retrial for all the defendants before another criminal court, state news agency MENA said.

    The men were convicted on charges of violence, kidnapping and torture stemming from the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012.

    On Tuesday, a Cairo court sentenced Mursi to death over a mass jail break during the country’s 2011 uprising and passed severe sentences against the leadership of Egypt’s oldest Islamic group.

    The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and four other Brotherhood leaders were also handed the death penalty. More than 90 others, including influential cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi, were sentenced to death in absentia.

    The Brotherhood has described the rulings as “null and void” and the movement called for a popular uprising on Friday.

     

  • Egypt’s ex-president Mursi sentenced to 20 years in prison

    Egypt’s ex-president Mursi sentenced to 20 years in prison

    An Egyptian court sentenced ousted President Mohamed Mursi to 20 years in prison without parole on Tuesday for the killing of protesters in December 2012, in a decision broadcast on state television.

    Reuters says it was the first ruling against Muslim Brotherhood leader Mursi since the army toppled him in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

    The decision can be appealed.

  • Bomb kills three policemen in Egypt

    A bomb blast beside Egypt’s foreign ministry killed three policemen on Sunday, including a key witness in a trial of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

    The blast, the worst attack in Cairo for months, killed two police lieutenant colonels and a recruit, according to the foreign ministry.

    Ajnad Misr, the Islamist militant group that carried out the last significant attack in Cairo, claimed responsibility for the blast in a statement posted on their official Twitter account.

    “This new operation shows we can penetrate and reach the vicinity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…to destroy the officers of the criminal security agencies and make them taste some of what they have made Muslims taste,” it said.

    “Operations of retribution and revenge by this blessed group will not stop,” said the group, whose name means Soldiers of Egypt.

    The blast was the latest attack in a simmering insurgency against the United States-backed government, underlining security challenges facing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Reuters reports.

    Sisi, who has just completed 100 days in office, has pushed through some badly-needed economic reforms such as a rise in fuel prices. But tackling Islamist militants, an issue that has dogged one Egyptian leader after another, is far from easy.

    Egypt has faced rising Islamist militant violence since Sisi ousted Mursi last year after mass protests against his rule and cracked down on Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which the government has declared a terrorist group.