The Egyptian military junta seems not to notice just how bad its policy decisions look, and fresh off of yesterday’s court order of a mass execution of 529 pro-Morsi protesters as “terrorists,” the exact same court is getting a chance to do it again.
The court is getting another group of 683 detainees, including former Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie in the new mass trial, and they are likewise facing a myriad of capital offenses which boil down to opposing last summer’s military coup d’etat.
Even the normally pro-junta US State Department was taken aback by the mass death sentences, which they said are against the “basic standards of justice.” Though they insisted the “aid policy” is always under review, the administration doesn’t seem interested in actually cutting Egypt’s annual billions in aid over the matter.
Which isn’t surprising. In the wake of the coup the junta massacred protesters by the hundreds in the streets to relative US ambivalence, so the precedent of the Egyptian military killing whoever it wants is already well established.
