• EGYPT
  • March 9, 2015
  • 4 minutes read

Rights Organization: Ramadan Execution Based on Unjust, Flawed Trial

Rights Organization: Ramadan Execution Based on Unjust, Flawed Trial

The independent (non-government) Egyptian Observatory for Rights and Freedoms (EORF) affirmed that it, through a specialized team working on the case of Mahmoud Ramadan and 57 others detained with him, continue to work on the case, despite the implementation by coup authorities of the death penalty against Mahmoud Ramadan.


In a statement, a EORF specialized unit monitoring violations of fair trials rights and procedures said Egyptian courts are now legitimizing ‘killing outside the law based on unjust and flawed trials’, while continuing to play their role in keeping thousands of detainees in prisons and various places of detention.


"Every day offers new indisputable evidence that there are simply no human rights in Egypt, nor any hope for justice in the absence of proper law, and that no respect for or response to fair demands for citizens’ right to defend themselves in court, in a fair justice system.


"The case, in which Mahmoud Ramadan was executed and 57 others received varying prison terms including hard labor, was according to witnesses, the product of loose statements taken under torture by the police. However, the Court rejected requests by the detainees’ lawyers for re-questioning of the victims (the detainees), who assert they suffered physical and psychological torture in order to sign fake confessions."


On February 5, 2015, the Court of Cassation rejected the request of the victims (the detainees) to challenge or overturn an earlier verdict, which meant the death sentence became final – ready for implementation.


The statement stressed that coup authorities violated the African Charter on the implementation of the death penalty, which prohibits in its Article IV the denial of the right to life, while its Article V prohibits all forms of torture as well as inhuman and degrading treatment. Articles VI and VII affirm the right to personal liberty and the right to a fair trial, while Article 26 places on states an obligation to ensure the independence of the judiciary.


EORF’s specialized unit monitoring violations of fair trials rights and procedures said that the African Commission for the Protection of Human and Peoples Rights and other international organizations are directly responsible for the protection of detainees threatened by the implementation of the death penalties in light of the beclouded legal horizon in Egypt and the lack of any other way to appeal or challenge those sentences after the Court of Cassation joined the circle of repression that legalizes death sentences based on invalid evidence and flawed arguments.


EORF confirmed that the complaint presented to the African Commission for Human and Peoples is still pending before the Commission, awaiting a decision on a re-trial of the remaining defendants. EORF further pointed that as coup authorities broke all charters and treaties and signed a death sentence criticized and rejected by the world community, they expose themselves to the weight of international law and rights criticism that will not stop in a climate of brutal violations of all rights and freedoms.