EGYPTIAN MURDER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 823, 23 May 1910, Page 7

EGYPTIAN MURDER.

ATTEMPT TO INTERFERE WITH THE COURTS. . BY MOHAMMEDAN RELICIOUS DICNITARY. DIRECTS ACQUITTAL OF THE ASSASSIN. Ilr Tclecrncb—Press Assoclatfon-OoDyrlehL (Rec. May 22, o p.m.) Cairo, May 2^ A sensation has been caused in Egypt by a declaration of the Mufti (a Mohammedan law officer whose duty it is to expound tho law which the Cadi, or judge, lias to execute). The declaration is addressed to the three judges in the case of' Wardani (the Mohammedan who assassinated with a revolver' tho Egyptian Premier Boutros Pasha, and who, according to a cablegram of May 14, was condemned to death, from which sentence he has appealed). The Mufti declares that the judges must refuse to sanction the death sentence for three reasons: (1) That revolver wounds are outside Mohammed's definition of murder. (2) That the victim was a Christian. . (3) That the relatives of Boutros did not prosecute Wardani. The Mufti's appeal is made to Mohammedan passions, and directly threatens the Copts, who are Christians. Wardani's appeal against the death sentence will bo heard on June 5. THE MUFTI'S FETWA AND THE COURTS. The interference of the Mohammedan religious power with the course of justice in Egypt is sufficiently serious. The revival by the mufti (or pronouncer of fetvas) of his old power over tho cadi (or judge) is incompatible with modern justice. Mohammed, who died in 032, is hardly to blamo for the fact that his definition of murder docs not include revolver wounds. According to one authority, "a fetv.a is a decision according o Koran and Snnna, but without reasons, on an n!wtvo'j h case of law which s brought before the mufti by appeal from the cadi's authority or by reference from the cadi himself. . . . From this decision there is no appeal, so that the mufti is supreme judge in his own district." What tho fetwa can do is ;hown by that historic and quaintly-worded document by which the Sheik-ul-lslam .dethroned the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, at the instance of the Young Turks. Fetwa-logic is very adaptable.