The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Executions in Egypt labelled ‘outrageous’
An international human rights group has condemned Egypt’s execution of 49 people so far this month and urged authorities in Cairo to grant fair retrials to those on the death row.
Between October 3 and 13, Egypt executed 47 men and two women, according to statement issued by Human Rights Watch.
The group said 15 of those executed had been convicted of involvement in political violence that followed the military overthrow in July 2013 of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and nor th Africa director for Human Rights Watch, said: “Egypt’s mass executions of scores of people in a matter of days is outrageous.
“The systematic absence of fair trials in Egypt, especially in political cases, makes every death sentence a violation of the right to life.”
An Egyptian government media officer could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.
Mr Morsi hailed from the rank soft he Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s oldest Islamist group.
Since his departure, authorities have banned the group and rounded up most of its leaders, including the ex-president.
Mr Morsi collapsed in court last year – a death that human rights activists said was evidence of the “inhumane living conditions” at Egyptian prisons.
The New York- based rights group said 13 of this month’s executions took place in Cairo’s supermax facility known as Scorpion, following clashes inside the death row ward that left four policemen and four inmates dead.
At the time, authorities said the four prisoners, who had been sentenced to death in separate terror- related cases, were killed in an escape attempt.
The Human Rights Watch statement cited an anonymous human rights lawyer who challenged the government’s account after speaking to relatives of two of the inmates.
The lawyer said the four prisoners ambushed and fatally stabbed guards during a routine inspection. Other inmates later saw security forces enter the cell and gunshots were heard, the lawyer said.
“Egypt has had a pattern of judicial and suspicious extrajudicial killings following attacks on security forces or civilians in recent years ,” the statement added.