Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this Topical Issues matter to be chosen. It, and the abduction of the young girls in Egypt, are two glaring recent examples of an appalling abuse of human rights. We know what happened in Egypt on one particular day. A total of 683 men were sentenced to death by the Egyptian criminal court. They were accused of murder, attempted murder, burning a police station, belonging to a banned group, etc. The same day 37 out of 528 sentenced to death at a previous trial were given the death sentence while the rest - 491 - were given life imprisonment instead. On the same day, the court also banned the April 6 Youth Movement, a peaceful secular movement which led to the protests in 2011. All these examples raise serious concerns regarding the judiciary.

One Middle Eastern academic said that the sentences have demonstrated a dangerous overlap between the executive branch and the judiciary and that these are political decisions and not judicial ones. A hearing lasted eight minutes, no evidence was heard through the defendants, no evidence was heard from legal representatives, the defence was not allowed to cross-examine and the judge did not review evidence. Mr. Colm O'Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International, stated:

Today's decisions [the 28 April decisions] once again expose how arbitrary and selective Egypt's criminal justice system has become. The court has displayed a complete contempt for the most basic principles of a fair trial and has utterly destroyed its credibility.

Regardless of possible overruling of those sentences, it has had a devastating effect on the defendants, on their families and on democracy. What has happened is putting democracy and the democratic process at risk because one wonders whether the regime, with the judiciary, can be trusted to hold free and fair elections. It is most alarming that the head of Al-Qaeda stated: "What happened is the biggest proof of the failure of democratic means to achieve an Islamic government". He called on the Brotherhood to give up democracy to join the Jihad and establish a truly Islamic state.

A response is vital and it is up to the international community to speak out. What has our response been? Has our ambassador in Egypt made known our concerns about this matter? Has the Egyptian ambassador to Ireland been called into a meeting with the Minister of State or the Tánaiste on this matter? We have a strong voice. We are on the UN Human Rights Council, we have a reputation and we can be a much stronger voice on this matter. What will the Tánaiste do at the next meeting of EU Foreign Ministers because after all, the EU is Egypt's biggest trading partner? We saw the action taken against Russia in regard to Ukraine and the action taken against Syria. Here we have a gross abuse of democracy in a country but what are we saying about that issue?

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