Amid protests, Egypt sentences nearly a thousand people to death
Conectas on April 17 sent a letter expressing “deep concern and indignation” to the Egyptian Ambassador in Brasília, Hossameldin Mohamed Ibrahim Zaki, over the death sentence given to 529 Egyptian citizens on March 24 by the Criminal Court of Minya. According to the organization, the sentence “has no precedent in recent world history” and should be reviewed immediately.
This ruling by the Egyptian judicial authorities can be added to another 683 similar convictions handed down a week after the letter was sent. Cairo has since commuted the sentences of 492 of the first 529 people given the death penalty to life imprisonment. As such, to date, a total of 720 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been sentenced to death in collective trials.
Conectas asked for a “fair and impartial trial, in accordance with the highest international standards” and recalled that “many of the suspects were tried in absentia and were not present in court when the sentence was handed down, in clear violation of article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”, which was ratified by Egypt in 1967.
