Legislator Calls on President to Denounce Egypt's Mass Death Penalty

Jakarta (Antara) - Indonesian lawmaker Almuzzamil Yusuf has called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to condemn Egypt's mass death penalty ruling and to unite other Muslim-majority countries in demanding a revocation of the death sentence. "As the world's largest Muslim country, we, the Indonesian government and people, must condemn the barbaric and inhuman act of sentencing a large number of its citizens without proper court trial," Muzzamil, the deputy chairman of the Parliament's Commission III, noted here recently. The very brief trial process, which imposed death penalty on 683 members of the Islamic Brotherhood (Ikhwanul Muslimin) violated the human rights and the international laws, he pointed out. The Egyptian court did not comply with the international laws by denying the suspects an opportunity to defend themselves nor did they have lawyers representing them during the trials, he reiterated. "The basic rights were denied to citizens by the Egyptian ruler through the Egyptian court," Muzzamil emphasized. The mass death penalty ruling demonstrated a serious regression of democracy in the Middle Eastern country, he stressed. Muzzamil of the Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) urged President Yudhoyono to voice his objection against the mass death sentence. Meanwhile, Egypt's ex-army chief and leading presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi remarked on Monday that the Muslim Brotherhood movement of the deposed leader, Mohamed Morsi, was "finished" in Egypt and will not return if he was elected. Following the Sisi-led army ouster of Morsi in July, the Brotherhood has been banned, its leaders arrested and more than 1.4 thousand people, mostly Islamist supporters of Morsi, were killed in protest clashes, AFP reported. "I did not finish it, you Egyptians finished it," Sisi stated during his first television interview since announcing his candidacy when questioned if the Brotherhood was "finished." When asked if he was saying that it will not exist under his presidency, he responded in the affirmative. Sisi pointed out that the Egyptians had rejected the group's ideology and will not allow it to return. (*)