Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Political Scientist at the University of Westminster and a specialist on Islam, Middle East politics and Democracy, explains why he believes the court "would have to convict", Morsi

Monday, February 17, 2014

Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Political Scientist at the University of Westminster and a specialist on Islam, Middle East politics and Democracy, explains why he believes the court "would have to convict", Morsi

Lawyers for Egypt's Morsi walk out of latest trial

Sally Nabil reports from Cairo, where she says the lawyers walked out in protest at the glass dock

Lawyers for deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi have walked out of his trial on charges of espionage and conspiring to commit acts of terror.

The trial has now been adjourned until 23 February.
The lawyers withdrew in protest at Mr Morsi and other defendants being confined in a soundproofed glass cage.
The Islamist former leader is facing four separate trials, three of which have now opened.
Mr Morsi was brought to Cairo's police academy on Sunday morning by helicopter from the Burj al-Arab prison where he is being held.
In this trial, he and 35 others are accused of working with Lebanese and Palestinian groups to carry out attacks in Egypt.
Mr Morsi has been put in the soundproof cage in recent appearances to prevent him shouting and disrupting proceedings.
The defendants have said they cannot follow proceedings because of the cage, but the judge insisted that headphones installed inside the dock will allow them to listen.
The cage allows the judge to control when the defendants are heard.
At one point when he was audible, Mr Morsi said: "What are you so afraid of? Are you afraid because you have no public support?" Reuters reports.
The court said it would appoint a new defence team.

An Egyptian riot policeman stands guard on the top of an armoured vehicle outside the Police Academy

Security was tight outside the police academy where the trial was taking place

A pro-military Egyptian holds a poster behind barbed wires

Pro-military protesters had assembled, some demanding Mr Morsi's execution

Morsi defiant Mr Morsi was ousted by the military last July following mass street protests against his rule.
Since Mr Morsi was ousted there has been a severe crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group, as well as on other activists seen as hostile to the military-backed government.
The Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organisation and authorities have punished any public show of support for it.

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'Most probably, Morsi will be convicted' - expert

Photo: EPA

As Egypt's ousted President Mohamed Morsi appeared in court on Sunday for the first hearing of the case in which he is charged on espionage and terrorism counts, Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Political Scientist at the University of Westminster and a specialist on Islam, Middle East politics and Democracy, explained in an interview to the Voice of Russia on what legal grounds Morsi cannot be brought to trial as executive president and why he thinks the court "would have to convict him".

How do you think this trial is going to end for Mr. Morsi? Will Morsi be convicted?
Most probably, yes, I think. Because this story is no longer a legal matter. If the legal rules were observed Morsi cannot be brought to trial as executive president and yes, he has his immunity but he has been arrested first before any charges and then the charges were being brought as he was arrested which indicates that if a court accepts these procedures this means that the court would then do the biding of whoever in power at the time is officially. So if they haven't observed the law in the first instance they would have to convict him.
Sunday’s trial is one of four prosecutions that Morsi has had to face. Can you comment on the reason that we have seen so many trials? Why hasn’t it just been one trial against Morsi? Why is it so many steps in this process of prosecuting?
I think they are groping in the dark, they want something to stick. For example, this charge that a person has escaped from prison during the revolution is rather ridiculous, because there are hundreds of thousands of prisoners who left at that time, none of them were facing trial, some of them are actually in parties which are the parties who support the government. Secondly, how can you charge the president of dealing illegally with foreign entities? Usually the president of the republic is the person who decides foreign policy and is the person who legally can decide who is going to talk to or not to talk to. Anybody else has not been authorized by the president to discuss matters with foreign power could be trialed if he wanted to do that in ways which are harmful to national security or against the law. But there is no law which says that the president for example cannot talk to Hamas or cannot talk to Hezbollah or not talk to anybody else. To charge the president with espionage for talking to whoever he decides is certainly assuming that there is an authority other than the president or above the president which can tell him how to conduct his foreign policy. So all the other charges are also problematic. It is really kind of theater more or less.
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