Source: The Tahrir Institute For Middle East Policy
Author(s): Sherif Azer
Original Link: https://timep.org/commentary/why-egypt-must-work-toward-abolishing-the-death-penalty/
International rights groups this summer criticized death sentences issued by the Egyptian judiciary following what they called unfair trials, with convictions based on confessions obtained through torture. Since 2013, courts in Egypt have handed down hundreds of death sentences. On Monday, hundreds of defendants facing the death penalty in a mass trial were instead sentenced to jail. But despite the Egyptian judiciary’s current fad of sponsoring executions, there is no clear legal explanation for the increased pace in the issuing of death sentences in highly complicated and controversial cases, with judges handing out the death penalty left and right to appease public opinion as well as the regime. If judges find it so easy to dole out death penalties en masse, capital punishment in Egypt must be examined from a legal and humanitarian perspective so that the public can be better informed about where the rest of the world stands on this method of punishment….
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