Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy On Recent Developments in Egypt Senate Floor

[Jefferson23]

April 29, 2014

[Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) chairs the State Department and Foreign Operations Subcommittee -- the Appropriations Committee panel that oversees the State Department’s budget as well as foreign aid programs. In his role as chairman, Leahy has put a hold on the Administration’s April 25 request to obligate $650 million in military assistance for Egypt that was provided under the Fiscal Year 2014 Appropriations bill enacted early this year. Leahy has worked on writing current and previous congressional conditions on aid to the Egyptian Government. Leahy announced his hold Tuesday on the Senate Floor.]

Mr. President, on another matter, events in Egypt continue to concern people of goodwill, in this country and across the globe, who have shared the Egyptian people’s yearning for greater freedom under the rule of law.

As the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, I have watched this unfolding situation with great interest, and with growing dismay.

I am extremely disturbed by the Egyptian Government’s flouting of human rights and appalling abuse of the justice system, which are fundamental to any democracy.

I am not prepared to sign off on the delivery of additional aid for the Egyptian military until we have a better understanding of how the aid would be used, and we see convincing evidence that the government is committed to the rule of law.



http://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/-statement-of-senator-patrick-leahy-on-recent-developments-in-egypt-senate-floor

[Jefferson23]

1. Egypt is a Police State: Senior Muslim Brotherhood Member Condemns New Mass Death Sentence for 683

Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has announced plans to block $650 million in military aid to Egypt after an Egyptian court sentenced to death 683 alleged supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie. Leahy, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, described the judicial proceedings as a "sham trial."

Transcript

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS

snip*This particular judge has a reputation for very harsh sentences. He recently sentenced a dozen people to 88 years in prison for rioting, and he also acquitted about a dozen police officers for the killing of 17 protesters during the 2011 uprising. And also, if we look at just the sheer number of people in this latest case, 680 people in this small town, it’s almost as if every person knows someone or has an extended family member who has been sentenced to death now. And the local papers have reported a mother saying that her son was sentenced to death even though he died three years ago. A local human rights group, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, documented how two people sentenced to death for this August 14th riot were actually in Libya at the time. So, this really doesn’t satisfy even the basic—the basic requirements of due process. And, of course, this is the same judge who last month sentenced 529 people to death. On that same day, the other day, he commuted all but 37 of those death sentences. That’s still a very high number for Egyptian law. If we want to make a comparison, when—following the assassination of the Egyptian president, Anwar El Sadat, in 1981, five people were sentenced to death.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Let’s bring in Mohamed Soudan into the conversation, foreign relations secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Could you explain the response of the Muslim Brotherhood to this verdict?

MOHAMED SOUDAN: I really want to assure all what Mr. Sharif just said, but also I want to add something from my perspective about what went on in [inaudible] court, that it’s only—it’s not only one judge. They are three judges, and any verdict to be agreed upon for this verdict or court decision. I think these guys, the three judges, are under big pressure from the Egyptian intelligence to issue these kind of verdicts. It’s unbelievable verdicts. It’s against the humanity. It is something no one can believe it. The judges, they are supreme judges; they are not young judges. They never do something like this. Number one, they released all the opposites, which they kill rebels in the revolution of the 25th of January, 2011. And now they are coming to issue a verdict. It’s the more than 700 people sentenced to death, and almost 500 people to be sentenced for a while, for 25 years, just to kill one officer. It’s something unbelievable, without any investigation, never giving space or time to the defenders to defend themselves or the lawyers to talk.


http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/30/egypt_is_a_police_state_senior