By: Ahram Online
Source: Ahram Online
Egypt’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it had summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires to protest comments made by Islamabad condemning Cairo’s decision to sentence ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to death.
Islamabad last week expressed “considerable concern” over Morsi’s sentencing.
Pakistan hoped that “the government of Egypt would take steps to meet the requirements of justice under law and would show compassion in the case of political prisoners,” according to a statement by the country’s foreign ministry.
Egypt slammed the comments as “unacceptable” and as an “interference in [its] internal affairs,” according to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry.
It said that the remarks “cast a shadow over relations between the two countries”, adding that the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad has expressed “total rejection” of the comments.
Former Islamist president Morsi, as well as over 100 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation from which he hails, were sentenced to death on 16 May in connection with a mass jailbreak from Egypt’s Wadi Natroun prison in 2011.
The verdict came as part of the massive security crackdown on Islamists that followed Morsi’s 2013 removal.
The UK, the EU and the UN have condemned the ruling.
New York-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International has said the sentence followed “grossly unfair trials” and showed a “complete disregard for human rights.”
Cairo hit back and said that the flurry of condemnations “violated all international conventions, which respect sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of another country.”
