Egypt’s Information shows Falsehoods in German Bundestag’s Statements

After the recent interview of President of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert with Deutsche Welle, Egyptian State Information Service rectifies a number of falsehoods and inaccuracies in the statements made by him. Those inaccuracies as follows:

1. It is a false claim that the Egyptian Parliament had been dissolved two years ago in the wake of the June 30 revolution, and that its speaker Dr. Saad Al-Katatni had been apprehended. The truth of the matter is that the Parliament had been dissolved in 2012 as a result of a lawsuit. The Supreme Constitutional Court had ruled to dissolve the Parliament due to the fact that the legislation upon which it was elected was unconstitutional, as it failed to ensure equity between candidates.

2. It is also a false claim that the procedures of the espionage and prison break cases in which Saad Al-Katatni and Mohamed Morsi are accused were initiated after June 30. In fact, the cases had been initiated during the rule of the Brotherhood in 2013, when the Ismailia Misdemeanor Appeals Court ruled to refer to the Public Prosecution the case of the Wadi Al-Natroun Prison break, in order for the Prosecution to investigate evidence implicating foreign parties and the terrorist organization of the Brotherhood in the breaking into prisons and the murder of tens of prisoners and police officers and personnel.

3. The recent decision by the Criminal Court to refer the documents of the “espionage” and the “Wadi Al-Natroun prison escape” cases to the Mufti for his religious opinion does not constitute a final death sentence verdict; the opinion of the Mufti is consultative.

4. The claims made by the President of the German Bundestag that there are 40,000 detainees in Egyptian prisons held for political reasons is completely untrue to say the least. There is not a shred of evidence to verify this number, as the Bundestag President acquired this information from organizations with known reputations of bias and lack of objectivity. These organizations consistently seek to defame Egypt in service of purely political objectives, by propagating these baseless lies for which there is no evidence. There are, in fact, no political detainees in Egypt.

5. The statements made by the Bundestag President reflect a lack of knowledge of the judicial procedures in Egypt, and of the nature of the Egyptian constitution and laws, which guarantee a fair and impartial trial before the fully independent Egyptian judiciary. The law is implemented uniformly on everyone by the Egyptian judiciary, with no exceptions, within the context of regulations that ensure a fair trial for the defendants and in accordance with the international norms and standards for fair trials. All trials are carried out with full due process, and the defendants have access to two stages of appeal. The initial verdict can be appealed before the Court of Cassation which can overturn it and refer the case to another court, and the verdict issued by this second court can then once again be appealed before the Court of Cassation, which in this instance will either confirm the verdict or overturn it and issue its own verdict in the case.

6. One of the most inaccurate claims made by the Bundestag President purports that President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi was elected in undemocratic elections. This is a flagrant denial of the participation of the Egyptian judiciary, as well as regional and international organizations, in monitoring and overseeing the electoral process. These organizations included the European Union, The African Union, The International Organization of La Francophonie, and the CEN-SAD, in addition to 40,000 representatives from Egyptian non-governmental organizations. All of these organizations monitored the presidential elections in Egypt in 2014 and confirmed that they were free and fair.