Egypt: Cairo court sentenced to death 75 demonstrators of the pro-Morsi sit-in



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On Saturday, July 28, 75 Islamists, including many Muslim Brotherhood leaders, were sentenced to death by a Cairo court. This is the largest number of death sentences in a single trial.

The verdict came after a two-year trial and strikes those who were identified as responsible for the violence committed during the sit-in vacancy in favor of Morsi in 2013.

In all the defendants are 739, the verdict on the rest has been postponed to 8 September.

Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan, Egyptian journalist in prison for 4 years and 9 months, is among those who are still waiting to know their fate.

Shawkan was 30 years old and was arrested on August 14, 2013 while he was simply doing his job: on that day he was, on behalf of the London Demotix photo agency, on Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, Cairo, to document the violent eviction of a sit-in of the Muslim Brotherhood

. Five years, Shawkan lives in a cell of a few square meters in the Torah prison in Cairo. (Inside the Tora prison, south of Cairo, is the maximum security wing Scorpio, considered among the worst prisons in Egypt, in this article we explained how this is done. done and what's going on inside).

The judges, as usual, sought the opinion of the Grand Mufti of Egypt, the main Sunni Egyptian religious authority, to which convicts may appeal.

On August 14, 2013, during the evacuation incidents of the two-seater protest, police and the army killed more than 700 demonstrators supporting Mohamed Morsi, president of the Freedom and Freedom Party. Justice (Muslim Brotherhood), President since June 30, 2012 and filed on July 3, 2013 by a military coup.

The overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the army in July 2013 unleashed a wave of attacks against security forces in Sinai. from the north and further west in the towns of the valley and the Nile delta. The military government has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of Morsi and their Islamic allies of orchestrating the violence and plotting against the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood was dissolved as a movement by the Supreme Administrative Court in September 2013 and declared a terrorist group in December. 2013.

The situation in Egypt

According to the New York Times, the number of death sentences pbaded by Egyptian courts has increased significantly in 2017. There are at least 186 cases.

The new Egyptian Constitution of 2014 makes no reference to the death penalty. Article 93 of the Constitution reaffirms the country's commitment to respect all ratified international human rights treaties and conventions

The death penalty is applicable in Egypt to more than 40 crimes.

Egyptian legislation provides for the death penalty for various crimes defined by the Penal Code, the Code of Military Justice, the Law on Weapons and Ammunition and the Law against Drug Trafficking. Egypt has extended the application of the death penalty since former President Hosni Mubarak took power in 1981 and after his deportation in 2011 and that of Morsi in 2013.

In the Egyptian legal system, all death sentences must first be submitted for a non-binding opinion to the Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar, the country's highest religious leader.

Any conviction at first instance is appealed to the Supreme Court, which may decide to uphold the judgments rendering them final or withdrawing them, in which case the trial will be repeated in another criminal court belonging to a different circuit

Si the second criminal court pronounces a second sentence, it may be the subject of an appeal to the Court of Cbadation, which can accept the appeal, repeat the process and make a final judgment, or dismiss the Appeal, in which case the decision of the second court sentence is considered final

The final judgments are finally forwarded to the President of the Republic, to whom the law confers the power of commutation and pardon. Executions can not take place during national holidays or religious holidays, also taking into account the convicted person's faith.

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