Source: Carnegie Endowment
Author(s): Sherif Mohy El Deen
Original Link: http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/71596
On June 7, the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest court, issued a ruling reaffirming the death penalty for six young men from Mansoura who have been in jail since 2014. This is part of a surge in executions over the past few years. Executions increased from 15 in 2014 to 22 in 2015, up to 44 confirmed in 2016—compared to none in 2012-13 and about four per yearunder Hosni Mubarak. Under Mubarak, most sentences were issued for murder or drug-related charges, and were rarely carried out. However, since the military government came to power in July 2013 most of these death sentences—1284 people between 2014 and 2016, according to Amnesty International, up from 109 in 2013 and about 180 per year under Mubarak—were protesters accused of allegedly forming terrorist cells and subsequently charged with threatening national security. Although these cases vary widely in their circumstances and seriousness, they all involve a violation of the principles and rules of a fair trial…
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