Give military leaders safe exit in return for democracy, Egypt told

Western governments have been encouraging Egypt’s nascent political powers to consider offering the military generals currently running the country immunity against prosecution, according to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Western governments have been encouraging Egypt’s nascent political powers to consider offering the military generals currently running the country immunity against prosecution, according to the Muslim Brotherhood.

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The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) has been in control of the country since the toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, with the junta’s rule marked by continued violent confrontations between revolutionaries and security forces, including allegations that they have ordered the shooting of unarmed protesters.

Senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party — Egypt’s largest political movement, which holds almost half the seats in the country’s new parliament — have told the Guardian that the international community has been covertly lobbying them to strike a deal with Scaf that would provide a “safe exit” for the ruling generals in exchange for a smooth transition to democracy.

“Foreign embassies have been advocating this as a solution,” claimed Gehad el-Haddad, one of the brotherhood’s senior advisers. “They’re not just asking us to consider it — they’re saying it might be the only way.”