Morsi Ruling Draws Mixed Reactions From Victims' Families

An Egyptian court verdict on Tuesday condemning ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to 20 years in jail garnered mixed reactions from the families of the victims.



Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, was found guilty along with 12 co-defendants of inciting the murder of demonstrators during clashes between his supporters and opponents outside eastern Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace in December of 2012.



Although a total of 11 people – including eight Morsi supporters – were killed in the palace violence, the trial only addressed the death of one reporter and two anti-Morsi demonstrators.



Family members of the two anti-Morsi protesters killed during the clashes expressed their disappointment with Monday's verdict.



"We were hoping for the death penalty for Morsi," one family member told The Anadolu Agency, adding that "a 20-year jail term is a lenient ruling."



Mohamed al-Sonousi, the brother of another victim, for his part, told AA: "What's the use of jailing them [brotherhood members] after they have killed our family members?"



"We were hoping that Morsi would be sentenced to death," he said.



Salem Abu Deif, whose brother al-Huesseini was killed while reporting on the clashes, told AA that he, too, "was expecting the death sentence for Morsi."



"Everyone who participated in the killing or incited violence should have been convicted accordingly," Abu Deif said.



The families of pro-Morsi victims, meanwhile, saw the verdict as "invalid," since the court never recognized the death of their family members in the case.



Marwa Zakaria, whose husband – a Morsi supporter – was killed during the clashes, told AA that "the verdict is invalid because it was built on faulty foundations."



"We filed requests to include our family members killed during the clashes in the case file but the court rejected our request," Zakaria said.



"It is our most basic right for the names of our martyrs to be included the case and for the prosecution and the court to address our requests," she said.



"Alas, there is no [fair] judiciary in Egypt, which is why we filed a complaint to the African Union against the verdict a while ago, which we're still following up on," she added.



Faten Shoeir, the mother of another Morsi supporter killed during the clashes and excluded from the court case, told AA that the Egyptian judiciary "is politicized" and its verdicts "invalid."



"Does it make sense for ten people to die in clashes and include only three of them in the court case?" Shoeir wondered.



Tuesday's verdict, which remains subjects to appeal, was the first against Morsi since his ouster and detention by the army in mid-2013.



Since then, he has been slapped with numerous criminal charges, which he and his supporters insist are politically motivated.



Morsi was ousted by the military in July of 2013 – after only one year in office – following protests against his presidency.



Since Morsi's ouster, Egyptian authorities have launched a relentless crackdown on dissent that has largely targeted Morsi's Islamist supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands behind bars.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire