Hours After Morsi Death Sentence, 3 Egyptian Judges Killed

Three Egyptian judges were killed after news broke that the deposed, democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi would be sentenced to death by the military government.

AFP reports the three judges were killed in El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai, on the Sinai Peninsula. Three other judges were also wounded. The attack took place as the judges travelled by car from the city of Ismailiya to El-Arish for a hearing.

The Sinai Peninsula has been the locus of attacks against the Egyptian government since the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohamed Morsi. Police stations and officers regularly come under attack.

Attacks have also been reported in other parts of the country, including the capital of Cairo. The fact that the judges were killed just hours after news of Morsi's death sentence became public suggests that the situation in Egypt will deteriorate even further.

Reuters reports that an anonymous official in the US State Department said the department was "deeply concerned" about the military government's plans to execute Morsi.

The US provides billions in military aid to Egypt, and continued to do so after the coup through legalistic casuistry wherein the US government denied a coup had even taken place when Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power.

The death sentence is not final until June 2, after the Grand Mufti has been consulted and the appeal process completed. The government is free to ignore the Mufti's opinion, and the judiciary is a compliant tool of the military government, making it likely that Morsi's death sentence will be upheld.

Sisi's regime has been accused of crimes against humanity for the manner in which it cleared a sit in at Rabaa Square, in which more than 600 people were killed. The Sisi regime also regularly hands down mass death sentences, shoots protesters, and imprisons dissidents.