- EGYPT
- January 30, 2018
- 4 minutes read
13 Egyptian Rights Organizations Call on UN to Stop Death Sentences by Sisi regime
In an address to the United Nations, 13 Egyptian human rights organizations called for immediate intervention to stop the Egyptian government from carrying out the death sentences issued by El Sisi’s regime.
In an open letter released on Monday, the rights organizations stressed that these rulings "lack the most basic rules of fair trials.", The statement detailed the most recent death sentences expected to be carried out anytime soon. The letter was also sent to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ibn Ra’ad and a number of senior United Nations officials.
The organizations called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other parties to address Abdel Fattah El Sisi to cancel the death penalty and retry the defendants.
According to the Egyptian law, "Once the death sentence becomes final, the papers of the convicted shall be immediately submitted to the President of the Republic by the Minister of Justice. The death sentence shall be executed if an amnesty order is not issued or if the sentence is not commuted within 14 days."
The Arab Human Rights Information Network, the Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms, the Nadim Center, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms are among the signatories of the letter.
Since El Sisi came to power in a military coup against the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi on June 8, 2014, and until January 2, 2018, the number of executions has reached 27 executions resulted from 5 cases: 2 cases before civilian courts and 3 before military courts.
According to official statements, the authorities reject any accusations against the independence of the judiciary saying that both civilian judiciary and military judiciary are independent and impartial, and that the defendants are subject to more than one degree of adjudication, whereas human rights activists and politicians see the death sentence adujudications as "tarnished by vendetta against opponents and lack of a sound legal environment."
Accurate statistics regarding non-final death sentences, those still under litigation, are not available, but human rights organizations believe there are dozens of these cases.