Sudanese Islamists protest against Morsi’s death sentence
May 22, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Hundreds of Sudanese Islamists staged a demonstration in Khartoum denouncing a recent death sentence against Egypt’s ousted president Mohammed Morsi.
Sudan’s government distanced itself from the matter and described it as an Egyptian “internal affair”.
While several Sudanese Islamists groups including the People’s Congress Party (PCP) of Hassan al-Turabi and the Muslim Brotherhood condemned the court decision and warned that Egypt would witness a strong internal strife if Morsi and his companions were executed.
On Friday, the secretary general of the pro-government Islamic Movement (IM), al-Zubair Ahmed al-Hassan, and the leader of the opposition Just Peace Forum (JPF), al-Tayeb Mustafa, led about 800 hundreds of demonstrators following the weekly prayer in the Sudanese capital.
“Down with the al-Sisi government,” protesters chanted as they marched from the grand mosque toward the United Nations office in Khartoum east.
They waved pictures of Morsi and the famous yellow and black four-finger sign (symbol of the Raba’a al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo where Egyptian police allegedly killed hundreds of Morsi supporters in 2013).
Riot police cordoned off roads leading to the UN office and the protesters dispersed peacefully.
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, was ousted by the military in July 2013 after only one year in office following mass protests against his rule.
The court decision against Morsi and his aides drew condemnation from US, Turkey, Germany and the European Union (EU) with the rights group Amnesty International describing it as “nothing but a charade based on null and void procedure”.
Al-Hassan addressed the protesters demanding the UN and the free people across the world not to remain silent about Morsi’s death sentence.
He condemned silence of the rights groups and the secular and liberal forces “who claim to defend freedom but remain silent about the heinous crimes against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt”.
The IM secretary general also said Egypt has turned into a “large prison”, noting those illegal, unconstitutional, and inhumane rulings would lead to an endless conflict in the country.
Mustafa, for his part, said Egypt is witnessing a “new pharaonic era”, stressing the protesters seek to support the “right” anywhere in the world.
The leading figure at the opposition Reform Now Movement (RNM), Hassan Osman Rizg, said Egypt is being tested by the recent events, noting the Egyptian government chose to bully its people after it failed to achieve a victory for the Islamic nation.
The political secretary of the PCP, Kamal Omer, said that al-Sisi must know that the Sudanese people would not remain silent while he is killing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
(ST)