Death Penalty News

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s highest criminal court Monday upheld the death sentence for 12 people involved in a 2013 protest by Islamists, including leaders of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, state media reported. The 12 were convicted and sentenced in a mass trial in 2018 for involvement in a sit-in protest that was violently dispersed by security forces in an operation that left hundreds dead. The case resulted in 739 people being convicted on an array of charges ranging from murder to damaging property. The Court of Cassation also overturned death sentences for 31 others in the same case, giving them life imprisonment instead, the MENA news agency reported. The court upheld life sentences for the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, and 46 others. Also upheld Monday were 15-year jail terms for 374 defendants and 10-year imprisonments for 23 others. All of the sentences, which the court considered on appeal, are final. The sit-in at a square in a Cairo suburb was staged by s...

The Egyptian authorities carried out the death sentence against 15 detainees on Sunday, according to the “We Record” human rights platform. Yesterday, Egyptian human rights organizations and other opposition media announced the execution of 2 opponents, Yasser Al-Abasiri and Yasser Shukr, who had been convicted in incidents of violence in the case known in the media as “the events of the Library of Alexandria.” The “We Record” organization revealed today that 13 other detainees were executed yesterday also in the case of “Soldiers of Egypt 1”, and published the names of those executed and asked the families to contact the Zeinhom morgue to receive the bodies of their relatives. In a previous publication, the organization announced the arrival of a force of more than 20 personnel from the central security sector and special operations to the Zeinhom morgue, amidst a state of anticipation from the rise in the death penalty cases. The Court of Cassation, the highest civilian court in the...

The three defendants' confessions were extracted through torture, say rights groups Three Egyptian prisoners were executed on Wednesday morning after a court confirmed their death penalty on charges of killing a police officer, according to two human rights activists who spoke to Middle East Eye. Major General Nabil Farag, a senior ministry of interior official, was shot dead by gunmen during a security force raid on the town of Kerdasa in September 2013 after deadly clashes erupted in the aftermath of the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi. The raid on the town, known for its support for Morsi, came after the army and police violently dispersed the Rabaa and Nahda protests that August, leading to the death of at least 1,000 Morsi supporters in one day. The executions on Wednesday bring the total number of executed Egyptian political prisoners since 2013 to 38, according to Ahmed Mefreh, director of the Geneva-based Committee for Justice rights group. Mefreh ...

An Egyptian court handed a five-year jail sentence to award-winning photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid on Saturday and confirmed death sentences against 75 people in one of the largest mass trials since the 2011 uprising. Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan, who earlier this year received UNESCO's World Freedom Prize, is however expected to walk free soon, his lawyer said. Shawkan was arrested in August 2013 as he covered deadly clashes in Cairo between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. He was accused of "murder and membership of a terrorist organisation" - charges that can carry the death penalty - but has already spent five years in jail. Shawkan should therefore be able to leave prison "within a few days", his lawyer Karim Abdelrady said as he welcomed the verdict. Smiling in the dock, the photojournalist made a "V" for victory sign to journalists. But Abdelrady added that the sentence ...

CAIRO -- An Egyptian court sentenced 75 people to death on Saturday, including top figures of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, for their involvement in a 2013 sit-in, state media reported.  The Cairo Criminal Court referred the sentences to the Grand Mufti -- the country's top theological authority -- for his non-binding opinion as is the norm in capital cases. Though non-binding, the formality gives a window of opportunity for a judge to reverse an initial sentence. The sentences are subject to appeal. Sentencing for more than 660 others involved in the case was scheduled for Sept. 8, the Al-Ahram news website reported. Those sentences, too, are subject to appeal. Of the 75 defendants referred to the Mufti, 44 are jailed and 31 are at large. The court normally hands down the maximum sentence for fugitives but a re-retrial is typically held after they are caught. The case involves a total 739 defendants, including the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Gu...

An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced 11 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death over charges of killing policemen, the state-run Ahram newspaper reported. The case dated back to 2015 when the 11 convicts killed 3 policemen and burnt their vehicle. The court referred the sentence to Grand Mufti, the country's highest Islamic official who will give the religious judgment of all preliminary death sentences. The Mufti's opinion is non-binding as it is usually considered a formality, but his final opinion could reduce the penalty. Egypt has been experiencing anti-security attacks since the army-led ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, and the ban on his Muslim Brotherhood in 2014. Thousands of extremists have been detained and faced trials.  Morsi and some prominent figures of his group have received final verdicts that varied from death to life sentence over charges of murder, violence and spying. Source:  xinhuanet...

An Egyptian court on Saturday delayed a final ruling in a case against 739 people involved in a 2013 sit-in protest that was broken up by security forces, saying defendants could not be transferred to the court due to “security concerns”. The case, which involves top leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s leader Mohammed Badie, relates to a 2013 sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaa Square in support of President Mohamed Morsi after the army toppled him. Some of the defendants, including an award-winning photojournalist, could face the death penalty if convicted on charges ranging from murder to incitement to violence. International rights groups have condemned the trial. “The idea that more than 700 people could all stand trial together in one day, all facing the death penalty in what is clearly a grossly unfair trial that violates Egypt’s own constitution beggars belief,” said Amnesty International’s North African campaigns director Najia Bounaim. Hundr...

Egypt's Court of Cassation upheld on Saturday death penalty for six loyalists of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group over attacking a police station in the southern province of Minya in 2013. According to the court, the convicts stormed a police station in Minya's Matay town, stole the weapons inside, killed a senior policeman, attempted to murder others, allowed detainees to escape and finally set fire to the police station. It also reduced the execution verdicts against three defendants to 25-year imprisonment, upheld the 25-year jail for 59 defendants and acquitted 47 others. The rulings are final and unappealable as they have been issued in response to a previous appeal by the defendants against the initial rulings of a criminal court. Being supporters of ousted former President Mohamed Morsi, the convicts committed the acts of violence following the massive security dispersal of two major pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and nearby Giza in August 2013 that l...

The African Union has called on the Egyptian government to repeal the death sentence in 20 new cases. The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, a body within the AU, has urged the Egyptian government to "immediately suspend" the death sentences. This measure came after the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the party of ousted former President Mohamed Morsi, sent a complaint to the commission on behalf of the prisoners set to be executed. The FJP called on the commission to intervene and order an immediate suspension of the death sentences. "The Egyptian authorities have entirely ignored the commission's moratorium on the death penalty by failing to observe the defendants' right to a fair trial as per the guarantees included in the African Charter and other international treaties," the complaint reads. The complaint also claimed that evidence was gained via confessions through torture and denial of the right of access ...

Life sentences handed to 43 for role in demonstration over former president’s ousting An Egyptian court sentenced hundreds to jail for murder and illegally protesting on Monday after a mass trial criticized by rights groups. But it acquitted an Irish student, a high-profile detainee who says he was tortured in custody. Ibrahim Halawa was on trial with three of his sisters and nearly 500 others, all charged with, among other crimes, breaking into a mosque, killing 44 people, and illegal possession of firearms. The incidents followed the military's ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013. The defendants were all facing the death penalty but none received it. Instead the judge sentenced hundreds to jail terms including 43 people to life in prison, which in Egypt is 25 years, and five years of parole. Another 17 people were sentenced to 15 years in prison, 67 to 10 years, and 216 to five years. Two minors were sentenced to 10 years in absen...