The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) has strongly condemned the death penalty handed down to Egypt’s former president, Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted in a military coup two years ago.

The USCMO censured the flagrant violations of human rights under the rule of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, calling into question the financial support of the US administration for the military-backed government in Cairo, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday.

The recent ruling against Morsi is “a grave concern to American Muslims, to see American dollars [going] to a country that was supposed to uphold democracy and protect human rights, and what we see is the regime continues to receive US dollars in assistance while there is no improvement and no return to democracy,” said USCMO Secretary-General Oussama Jammal.

“I can’t even call it a government because it has not met the basic democratic qualifications,” he added in reference to Sisi’s administration.

Jammal also touched upon the acquittal of Egypt’s longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak from a number of his charges, saying a comparison of his verdict and that of Morsi attests to the unfairness of Egypt’s judicial system.

“It is ironic that former president of Egypt [Hosni Mubarak] has been vindicated and left without any charges whereas the only president who was elected directly by the people in the history of Egypt [Morsi] would be sentenced to death for something that is absolutely absurd,”  he went on to say.

Meanwhile, the Center for Islam and Public Policy also rejected Morsi’s death sentence as politically motivated.

“If you listen to judges in the case, you would be able to tell that this is not a trial, this is not a judicial court decision. It was a political statement read by some sort of so-called judge,” said Dr. Zahid Bukhari, the executive director of the US-based organization.

The remarks came a day after the Freedom and Justice Party, which has strong links with Egypt’s opposition Muslim Brotherhood movement, lashed out at Western countries for “insufficient” reactions to Morsi’s verdict.

“There should be more condemnation and pressure from Western countries [in the aftermath of the Morsi verdict],” said Nader Omran, the party spokesman, adding, “Only condemnation is not enough of course, they should support the right cause of the Egyptian revolution.”

Omran also referred to the heavy-handed crackdown on opposition figures in the Arab country, saying Egypt’s human rights situation would not improve as long as the military-backed government is in power.

“Anybody who just walks on the street, tries to raise his voice against what’s going on in Egypt is arrested and put in jail, without trial, without prosecution,” he pointed out.

On Tuesday, a court in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo upheld a death sentence against Morsi.

Egypt’s judiciary had charged Morsi with escaping from Wadi el-Natrun Prison, located north of Cairo, in January 2011, during the uprising that led to the ouster of Mubarak.

Earlier on Tuesday, the same Egyptian court sentenced Morsi to life in prison on charges related to involvement in espionage activities.

The death sentence has garnered harsh criticism from different countries and organizations all over the world, including Iran, Turkey, the United States, Qatar, the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled in a July 2013 military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the current president and the then head of the armed forces.

FNR/MKA/HMV