VIDEO: Egypt’s Justice Minister fired for saying he’d imprison Prophet Muhammad

    Egypt’s Justice Minister, Ahmed al-Zind, has been sacked after he said live on television that he would arrest and imprison the Prophet Muhammad if he broke the law.

    Zind’s comments came in a televised interview on Friday. Upon realising what he had said, Zind immediately stopped and said: “I ask for forgiveness from God.”

    He also issued an apology in another interview on Saturday, but to no avail.

    “Prime Minister Sherif Ismail issued a decree today to relieve Ahmed al-Zind … of his position,” a government statement said.

    Zind, a former appeals court judge, had been an ardent critic of the Muslim Brotherhood a supported the military coup which removed the group from power after a free and fair election in 2013.

    He opposed the 2011 uprising that saw the end of Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

    Egyptian judges issued a statement opposing Zind’s removal over what the head of the Judges Club told Reuters was a “slip of the tongue” that could have happened to anyone.

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    Egyptian courts have been absolving Mubarak regime officials, while imposing long sentences on Brotherhood and Islamic activists.

    Egypt’s judiciary has faced criticism from human rights groups in the past two years after judges issued mass death sentences against Muslim Brotherhood supporters, locking up youth activists and sentencing writers and journalists.

     

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