CAIRO: The Administrative Court will issue a verdict on Feb. 27 in the lawsuit filed by the Islamic Lawyers Association (ILA) last October calling for stripping Coptic lawyer Morris Sadek of his Egyptian citizenship.
Sadek is the president of the National American Coptic Assembly (NACA). He is known for his controversial views, previously calling on Israel to occupy Egypt as well as urging Ethiopia to prevent the Nile River water from flowing into the country.
However, some lawyers believe that Sadek may not be stripped of the Egyptian citizenship.
“It is hard for the Administrative Court to issue such a verdict unless this information is confirmed,” said director of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary, Nasser Amin.
“[After all] Sadek is an Egyptian who abides by Egyptian laws,” Amin told Daily News Egypt.
The public prosecutor should interrogate Sadek before any charges are pressed against him, he added.
“Egyptian law includes articles that have to do with stripping a person of citizenship if [they] prove to adopt racist or Zionist beliefs,” head of Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) Hafez Abu Saeda said.
“I think Sadek is [just] an imbalanced person. Or else many people would lose their citizenship,” Abu Saeda, also a lawyer, told Daily News Egypt.
Sadek immigrated with his family to the US in 1999. He currently works as a lawyer in Washington, DC.
Last May, Sadek sent a letter to Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman asking him to convince the United Nations to impose an international mandate over Egypt due to what he described as the “oppression” Egyptian Copts have been exposed to.
“It is obvious that the Copts in Egypt have been under [tough] conditions since … the 1952 [Free Officers’ coup],” according to the NACA official website.
“Because of the extremely oppressive conditions in Egypt … the Copts found it futile to say anything or to do anything, the only option available to them was patience," another online statement read.
“Our Muslim brothers, who got [used to this] state of non-expression, were shocked to hear our protests abroad and our demands for our rights in a manner that they never experienced before,” the statement added.
Sadek previously said in press statements that “Egypt was the rightful home of Copts… not the Arab descendants who now live in the country,” asking Muslims to leave the country.
The Coptic Church has recurrently renounced Sadek’s statements.
On Oct. 21, 2010, the ILA filed a complaint before the public prosecutor against whom they described as “the extremist” Sadek for “committing crimes … that would have an impact on the security of the state.” The association enclosed 75 documents that supported its claims.
The Egyptian Lawyers’ Syndicate cancelled Sadek’s membership after the ILA presented documents proving that he violated the enrollment conditions.
