ISTANBUL
Rectors of 43 Turkish universities sent a letter to Egypt's Grand Mufti demanding the reversal of an Egyptian court's decision to sentence hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members to death.
An Egyptian judge issued the capital punishment to 683 alleged Muslim Brotherhood supporters on Monday, including the group's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, and confirmed the death sentences of 37 of the 528 alleged supporters previously condemned.
"Execution of the death sentences will create deep wounds in Egypt and the Islamic world and damage justice and the feeling of confidence," a release on the letter by Marmara University in Istanbul revealed.
The letter to Grand Mufti, Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam stated that the Muslim communities should protect its own future with its own free will, “We are a part of the Islamic world. We are deeply saddened by the court decision taken on April 28 in Egypt to sentence the 683 people.”
The verdict cannot reconcile with Egypt’s human rights obligations, it said, urging the government to end the use of mass trials and forgive the ones who were sentenced to death.
'Coup courts' blamed for Egyptian death penalites: NGOs
Turkish NGOs have called on the world to ‘stand up against injustice’ against Egyptian judges who earlier this week recommended mass death sentences and life imprisonment terms against more than a thousand people.
Accusing the court of violating the basic rules necessary for a fair trial, the Foundation of Volunteer Organizations of Turkey, an umbrella group consisting of 120 foundations and over 200 members, expressed their support for the Egyptian people.
Speaking in Istanbul on Wednesday, foundation executive board member Hamza Akbulut said the death sentences issued against Muslim Brotherhood supporters had not been taken by independent courts but by “coup courts”.
On Monday, a court in Upper Egypt's Minya province sentenced 37 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi to death and commuted 491 death penalties to life imprisonment.
The court also referred 683 other defendants, including Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Mohamed Badie, to Egypt's top religious official for possible death sentences against them on violence charges.
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