EGYPT: TWO YEARS OF TERROR, 1,695 DEATH SENTENCES SINCE 2013

Ousted president Mohamed Morsi

18 September 2015 :

Egypt has seen 7 death sentences carried out and 246 overturned, with a further 433 still subject to appeal, out of a total of 1,695 death sentences for violence-related charges referred to the Grand Mufti since the military coup that deposed the country’s first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Most of the cases are related to protests against Morsi’s ouster; some are old cases that resurfaced following the coup, while the rest are “terrorism” cases with the majority of defendants being active members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Anadolu Agency has compiled a list of all death sentences issued in Egypt in the period from 3 July 2013 to 17 September 2015, according to judicial and human rights sources.
The death sentences issued against 246 defendants were revoked after their cases had already been referred to the Mufti for approval. The defendants appealed the rulings and the Court of Cassation accepted the appeal, repeated their trials and revoked the death sentences.
Death sentences that are subject to appeal in the Court of Cassation have been issued against 433 defendants, including ousted President Mohamed Morsi, who was convicted in the Wadi Al-Natroun prison break case.
A further 1,009 cases that had been referred to the Mufti did not see death sentences issued against the defendants: 516 defendants were given sentences other than the death penalty, while 493 were acquitted after their appeal was accepted and trials repeated.
At least 7 defendants were executed in 2015 for violence-related charges. One of them was executed on 7 March on charges of throwing a teenage boy off the top of a building in Alexandria. Another six were hanged on 17 May for membership in Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis armed group and alleged involvement in the bombing of a military checkpoint in Cairo.
 

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