Former Egypt MPs in Mauritania to campaign for prosecuting 'putschists'

CAIRO

Three former Egyptian lawmakers are travelling to Mauritania on Tuesday as part of a campaign to seek international prosecution of Egypt's army-installed interim authorities.

"We are looking forward to a successful visit to convey our case to all west African countries," former MP Ezzedin al-Komi told Anadolu Agency by phone from Senegal.

The three-member delegation has spent two weeks in Senegal meeting representatives of local and international rights groups to press for the prosecution of Egypt's interim officials and highlight "crimes" perpetrated by the interim rulers, including the killing of hundreds of supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

"We met with numerous public, partisan, official and legal figures in Senegal," al-Komi told AA before leaving Dakar.

"We met with the majority bloc in the Senegalese parliament, and they reiterated popular and official opposition to the military coup in Egypt," he added.

Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, was ousted by the military last July following protests against his single-year rule, a move described by his supporters as a military coup against an elected leader.

"We also agreed with international legal organizations to file complaints against the coup plotters in the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and International Criminal Court," al-Komi said.

"The discussions are going in the direction of filing an urgent complaint before the African Court," he added.

The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights is an African Union court with the jurisdiction of issuing binding resolutions against human rights violations committed in members states of the African Union, of which Egypt is a member.

The former legislator said they also discussed the possibility of lodging a complaint with the International Association of Judges against what he described as Egypt's "politicized" judiciary.

Egypt's interim authorities have rebuffed foreign criticism of its heavy-handed tactics against protestors by affirming they are battling "terror," citing a recent string of deadly bombings against security sites.

Last December, the interim government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist organization," blaming it for a deadly bombing targeting the main security headquarters in the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya which left at least 16 dead and scores injured.

However, the Brotherhood – which had propelled Morsi into the presidency through the ballot box - has repeatedly denied involvement in the attack and even condemned it as "an act of terror."

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