Mehmed Ali demanded uniform law yet privately overrode sentences to keep officers alive

Evidence

Seeing that there was a discrepancy in the application of the law, since the offense in both cases was the same (desertion) whereas two different sentences were passed on the same day, Mehmed Ali sent a strongly worded letter to Mahmud Bey, the Director of the War Department, ordering him to tell the members of the court martial to follow the letter of the law. At the same time, however, he said that these two officers should be sent to the Liman for life, although he acknowledged that the law said that they should be executed. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 920