Mursi’s death is being shamefully politicised

Elements of the Western media and human rights groups are guilty of exhibiting egregious double standards, making offensive unsubstantiated accusations against the Egyptian state in response to the death of the country’s former Muslim Brotherhood president. Those claims are based purely on conspiracy theories concocted by Cairo’s pro-Brotherhood enemies and disseminated by the usual suspects CNN, BBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times among others.

Now it appears the UN Commission for Human Rights has fallen for the propaganda, calling for an independent judicial investigation into Mursi’s death which Egypt’s foreign minister has labelled “politicised and immature”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the Egyptian authorities of murder. Given the facts, such hysterical reactions are bizarre.

There is no mystery surrounding the passing of worst Egyptian president in history who collapsed and died of a heart attack in court in full view of witnesses after a seven-minute address to the bench.

The 67-year-old was allegedly suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure as well as kidney and liver diseases. Bearing in mind that the average life-expectancy of Egyptian males is 71 and in view of his ill-health, his death can hardly be termed “premature”.

Why there is so much international concern about Mursi’s death from human rights groups and the media that ignore the plight of Julian Assange, a journalist/whistle-blower is beyond me.

- Linda S. Heard

Accusations that he was deprived of medical treatment are patently false. The Ministry of Interior is willing to show his thick medical file and has revealed he had been treated in a private hospital. Indeed, in 2017 a judge gave him permission to obtain private treatment. In any event the survival of a diabetic without access to insulin injections or tablets would be weeks or months, certainly not years.

Yes, family visits were restricted in the early days of his incarceration, since he used those visits to pass instructions to his rampageous following that terrorised the nation. The glass cage in the special court was built because Mursi and his cohorts would chant Brotherhood slogans, yell to drown out proceedings and make secret hand signals to their buddies, which was why judicial sessions were eventually closed to the media.

Mursi is the architect of his own downfall. He promised to be a president for all Egyptians whereas he inserted his Islamist cronies into all ministries and appointed them as governors including a member of the Islamic Jihad, the same group that assassinated former President Anwar Al Sadat and in 1997 gunned down, disembowelled and dismembered 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor. Shockingly that terrorist was slated as the new governor of Luxor!

The man for whom human rights groups are shedding crocodile tears was caught in aired taped conversations with Mohammad Al Zawahiri, (the brother of Al Qaida chief Ayman Al Zawahiri) pledging to release “the brothers” from prison when the time was ripe and inviting Al Qaida to set up camps in northern Sinai.

The Brotherhood HQ in Cairo’s Moqattam hilltop area was protected by Hamas gunmen. It is alleged that he shared security secrets with Qatar and in 2011 he colluded with Hamas and Hezbollah to break him and others out of prison.

Further it is widely believed in Egypt that the Brotherhood agreed with the Obama administration to ‘donate’ a tract of Egyptian territory to enlarge Gaza, which would have inflamed a population that lost fathers and brothers during the 1973 War with Israel resulting in the return of lands occupied by the Jewish State in 1967.

Subsequent to Mursi’s ouster demanded by 34 million Egyptians who voted with their feet, one of his henchmen Khairat Al Shater founded the terrorist group Ansar Beit Al Maqdis (now Sinai State affiliated with Daesh) responsible for the killing of security forces, civilians, tourists and Coptic Christians. Another from the Brotherhood top tier Mohammad Al Beltagy is seen on video claiming he had the remote to stop the attacks on condition Mursi was reinstated.

Let us not forget that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organisation so designated not only by Egypt but also Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria and very recently by Libya’s parliament. President Trump says he is mulling the same and Congress is currently debating the matter.

A probe by Britain’s Cameron government found that the Brotherhood has “a highly ambiguous relationship with violent extremism”. A British panel of MPs and lawmakers acting on behalf of Mursi’s wife and sons last year issued a damning report on Mursi’s treatment in custody although the only information they received was from the former president’s family that claim they only saw the prisoner three times in six years.

Why there is so much international concern about Mursi’s death from human rights groups and the media that ignore the plight of Julian Assange, a journalist/whistle-blower is beyond me. No ‘Journalism is not a crime” slogans for him. No sticky-taped mouths.

Assange spent almost seven years self-exiled in a room within London’s Ecuadorean embassy. He has serious health problems and is incarcerated in solitary while fighting extradition to the United States. Amnesty that has shrieked accusations over Mursi’s passing says “Assange is not a prisoner of conscience”. If God forbid he succumbs to such prolonged psychological torture will human rights groups cry foul and blame Britain?

— Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British political columnist and guest television commentator with a focus on the Middle East.