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The undersigned rights organizations condemn the Egyptian authorities’ latest spate of executions, with three people executed by hanging on February 13 and another three people hanged less than a week earlier on February 7. The six executions followed fundamentally flawed trials featuring confessions coerced through torture; bringing the total number of political prisoners put to death since July 2013 to 38, with at least another 59 people awaiting execution, having exhausted all appeals.

Egyptian Front for Human Rights, Committee for Justice and the Arab Foundation for Civil and Political Rights call on Egyptian authorities to halt the execution of further death sentences and to establish a moratorium on such punishment until a broad societal dialogue on that matter takes place, in line with Egypt’s international obligations.

This manual presents documentation methodology of violations of the rights of the accused through analyzing official documents of cases in Egyptian courts. It intends to monitor and analyze arbitrary measures and violations committed against the accused, especially in political cases, by judicial authorities and law enforcement personnel. Such measures violate rights guaranteed by the Constitution and International Conventions from the moment of arrest, through the process of investigation and trial, and until the accused is sentenced, after all litigation procedures established by Egyptian law are exhausted..

Today October 15, six independent rights organizations released a new report as part of the campaign to end capital punishment in Egypt. The report, “Military Execution,” examines the state-sponsored killing of 33 civilians between July 2013 and September 2018, following eight trials in military courts lacking basic due process guarantees, and rife with violations and irregularities. The organizations contributing to the report demand an immediate moratorium on death sentences issued by both civilian and military courts, as a prelude to societal dialogue on the abolition of the death penalty.

The undersigned organizations denounce the ruling on September 24, 2018 to uphold the death sentences of 20 defendants in connection with the 2013 attack on the Kerdasa police station. Egypt’s use of the capital punishment has been escalating at an unprecedented rate, with defendants slated for execution following brazenly unfair trials failing to meet minimum due process standards. The undersigned reaffirm our rejection of the death penalty and renew our calls for an immediate moratorium on mass death sentences in Egypt, and a suspension and review of all death sentences previously issued.

The undersigned organizations call upon the Egyptian authorities to stop using police supervision penalty and precautionary measures, and call for the unconditional release of those subjected to it. These measures restrict the freedom of the observed, and place them under the eyes of the various security bodies. This can be considered as an extension of the systematic policies of the Egyptian authorities to encircle freedom of opinion and expression. The organizations also express their full solidarity with those subject to such sanctions and arbitrary measures.

The undersigned rights organizations emphasize that the “unprecedented violations perpetrated by the Egyptian authorities are intensifying the frequency and severity of international condemnations.” Following the High Commissioner for Human Rights and five UN Special Rapporteurs’ condemnation of the unprecedented upsurge…

Within the past three weeks, 23 Egyptians were executed; 22 of them were civilians tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by military tribunal, a toll that is unprecedented in Egypt’s modern history. The well-reported and documented increase in death sentences handed down by Egyptian courts during El-Sisi’s tenure marks a new and alarming escalation. It also highlights a departure from Egyptian judiciary tradition which used capital punishment with a relative degree of caution.