Nine human rights organizations have called on President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to halt the execution of 16 people after “an unfair trial before an exceptional court whose rulings are not subject to appeal.”
The organizations called for the defendants to be retried before an ordinary criminal court, especially in the decision to end the state of emergency last October.
The events of their case date back to August 2015, when a police bus was attacked with an explosive device in Beheira Governorate, which resulted in the death of three police officers and the injury of others. The organizations documented the violations suffered by the defendants, describing the trial as “lacking minimum standards of a fair trial.” They also added that the defendants were subjected to severe physical torture and terrorized their family members.
They condemned the continuation of the accelerated pace of issuing and carrying out death sentences, demanding to suspend the execution and issuance of all death sentences, even if temporarily, “until a broad societal discussion opens about the complete abolition of the penalty.” They also called for amending the Code of Criminal Procedure to prevent the referral of civilians accused of crimes punishable by death to any exceptional or military court.
