While an Egyptian court’s sentencing of former president Mohamed Morsi does not come as a surprise, the lack of strong international reaction to the matter is disappointing. That was according to the Media Review Network’s (MRN) executive member Iqbal Jassat on Tuesday, commenting on the controversial trial which has destabilised the country further since the popular Arab Spring.

Morsi‘s trial has been a test of strength pitting the military-backed authorities against the democratically elected president they ousted in a violent coup in July 2013. Jassat said the muted response from Pretoria was concerning, considering the illegitimacy of the current coup regime led by Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi.

“The fact is Mohamed Morsi was an elected leader and therefore he’s being deposed by a military coup means that the current status of the Sisi regime is illegitimate. Therefore the judiciary and the pronouncements of the judiciary is of course tied to the political goals of the military coup,” Jassat explained.

The South African community’s reaction or lack thereof to the military coup and SA’s new supposed attempts to “forge new relations with the coup regime” is even more so disappointing, said Jassat.

“We are not surprised neither are we shocked, it’s an expectation that people have had with the death sentences and the long term life sentences that members of the Al Ikhwanul Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) are subjected to,” Jassat added.

He alluded to a cloud of uncertainty around the diplomatic relations between Pretoria and Cairo.

“Shortly after the military coup, one of the first high profiled visits Sisi received was by South Africa’s then minister of intelligence. However the details of that visit are still being kept under wraps. We certainly are deeply suspicious of the kind of relations that are being forged between the two capitals,” he said.

“Keep in mind that one of the first countries which agitated against the coup was South Africa when Egypt was suspended from the African Union. However following this discreet visit, things took a turn for the worst. I believe as a consequence these ties being forged remain for us a deep concern. It really suggests to us that in many ways, our foreign policy needs to be reviewed very urgently,” Jassat further explained.

Morsi and 12 other defendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Brotherhood leader was convicted on Tuesday of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters in clashes outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Morsi also faces serious charges in three other cases, including an accusation that he passed intelligence to Qatar. VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)