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On June 14, two weeks before the eighth anniversary of the coup against President Mohamed Morsi, an Egyptian court upheld the death sentence of 12 supporters of the former president. The decision came as no surprise to the human rights community. Since ousting a Muslim Brotherhood member Morsi on July 3, 2013, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ruled Egypt with an iron fist in an attempt to eradicate any form of opposition.
The events of 2013 killed more than 1,000 people, tens of thousands of prisoners, forcibly disappeared and tortured. Since the coup, a Geneva-based Justice Commission team has also documented the cases of 92 political prisoners executed in Egypt. The other 64 death sentences upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals and upheld by el-Sisi can be carried out at any time.
Confirmation of the 12-year death penalty is the culmination of one of the most brutal trials in Egyptian history over the distribution of the Muslim Brotherhood in Rabaa al-Adaweya Square in Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood. Leading judges sitting in Egyptian authorities Human Rights Watch said it was “one of the biggest killers of protesters in the world in a single day in history” rather than a security force. Many of the survivors of the massacre were jailed for premeditated murder, some of whom have already died in prison, including Morsi himself.
The intelligence agencies had been preparing public opinion for several months for a possible move against the sitting leaders in Rabaa. In addition to a media campaign that demonized demonstrations against the coup, a TV series broadcast in Ramadan depicted protesters as terrorists, acquitting security forces of any responsibility for the massacre.
Despite repeated condemnation by human rights organizations, it seems that el-Sisi does not feel the threat of a potential international reaction to the executions. In fact, it seems to be at the peak of its power today, both at the state level and at the regional level.
While Donald Trump was named president of the United States, el-Sisi dared to pursue his repressive policies. When Trump lost the U.S. presidential election in November 2020 to Joe Biden, the Egyptian president sought to curb criticism of the new U.S. administration by changing his human rights trajectory. In December 2020, the foreign ministry announced that the government was working on a “national strategy for human rights”. The media began to speculate about the immediate release of political prisoners.
El-Sisi also took steps to normalize relations with Qatar, which suffered damage in 2017 when it imposed a blockade on Saudi Arabia, the Basque Country and Bahrain.
In May, when Israel launched its latest attack on Gaza, el-Sisi seized the moment with unprecedented pragmatism to emerge as an important mediator for peace and a defender of Western interests. He negotiated a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which was highly praised in the West.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi slowly moved away from relocating himself. Relations with Qatar improved as death sentences were confirmed, while Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was in Doha, speaking with Al Jazeera.
On the other hand, opponents of the regime – the Muslim Brotherhood – have slowly lost police in the face of a record diplomatic offensive in the region and are on their way back.
Internal repression has successfully silenced all disagreements in Egypt, with the active support of justice. Since the assassination of Attorney General Hisham Barakat in 2015, the regime has deliberately dominated and armed the judiciary against its opponents.
Egyptian courts have legalized the pre-trial detention of tens of thousands of people, given death sentences and allowed the state to seize the assets of successful businessmen. In 2015, it also went against the national interest to accept the decision to transfer two strategic islands to el-Sisi in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia.
When he confronts small critics from the West and feels more confident at home and in the region, el-Sisi does not feel pressured to stop his campaign of assassination against the opposition.
Therefore, it is unlikely that he will be allowed to confirm the death penalty or go on to life imprisonment.
Executions are likely to take place, as there is no indication that there will be a sharp reaction from the West or the international community as a whole. Alternatively, el-Sisi may reaffirm the death penalty, but may indefinitely postpone executions for use abroad as a bargaining chip with opponents or create external pressure against human rights or the democratic transition.
The silence of the international community in the massacre campaign of el-Sisi’s opposition is gradually contrasting with the recent events in The Hague, where the life sentence of the Serbian military leader Ratko Mladić, nicknamed the “Bosnian butcher”, was confirmed. Mladić and el-Sisi are both serial killers, but one’s career is over, while the other is flourishing amid impunity.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of Al Jazeera’s editorial.
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