The Return of History: The Morsi Death Sentence
‘It stands not merely as a stark obituary but a broader death sentence of the Arab Spring. The message is fundamental: whoever is voted in the aftermath of enthusiastic protest against authoritarian regimes in the North African and Middle East will be dealt a terrible blow. They will be condemned as fundamentalist refuse and usurpers, or liberal lackeys, while the old guard will be favoured and lauded.
On May 16, Morsi and 105 other defendants were condemned to death for their role in a mass jailbreak in 2011 that took place under the regime of the ousted Hosni Mubarak. This was the surest sign that a vicious frost had issued forth to kill any buds from the spring.
Not content with that outcome, Morsi has again been placed on trial: for insulting the judiciary. As with so many things being done in Egypt by the revanchist authorities, he is not alone in being accused. There is Alaa Abdel Fattah, a person one would be reluctant to call a fundamentalist of any description or colour. There is the human rights lawyer Amir Salem. Then there is the political science academic Amr Hamzawy.’
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