By: AMR DARRAG and YEHIA HAMED
We have been aware of the Egyptian foreign ministry’s statement regarding the deliberate murder of president Mohammad Morsi, in which the ministry’s spokesperson condemned United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for an independent investigation in the circumstances of the elected president’s death.
This comes after the OHCHR’s spokesperson, Rupert Colville, said on Tuesday that “[a]ny sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death.”
The death of president Morsi raises many suspicions surrounding the nature of what he has been exposed to during his incarceration. Such suspicions were confirmed by Morsi himself in multiple court sessions explaining that his life was in danger, according to a report by the Detention Review Panel formed by UK MP’s. The Foreign Affairs Committee former Chair, Sir Crispin Blunt, declared that Dr Morsi’s detention circumstances may rise to torture which exposed him to premature death.
The Egyptian authorities declined tens of requests to allow president Morsi to be examined and receive the necessary medical care and insisted on keeping him in solitary confinement since his incarceration in 2013. President Morsi was only allowed three family visits that lasted a few minutes and was prevented from meeting with his legal team throughout the entirety of that time. The violations against President Morsi were unambiguous and such is the foreign ministry’s efforts to conceal the truth in the statement they distributed to the media.
The Foreign Ministry, through its unqualified minister and spokespeople, is determined to spread what can only be called lies. Egypt today cannot be further from freedom and democracy and that’s why we join the OHCHR’s spokesperson and other human rights organisations’ calls for an independent international
*Dr Amr Darrag and Yehia Hamed served in President Mohamed Morsi’s government as Minister of Planning and Minister of Investment, respectively.
