The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today expressed alarm over the death sentence imposed in Egypt to 529 people during a trial in the absence of most of the defendants.
Members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced yesterday by a court in Upper Egypt, south of the country, which found them responsible for the death of a police chief and an officer last August, during protests leading to the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi.
This is a staggering number of people sentenced to capital punishment, unprecedented in recent history, and a process marked by irregularities that violated international human rights law, OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters.
The spokesperson considered that the maximum sentence can only be issued after procedures which “respect the standards of fair trial and due process.”
A trial for so many people in just two days and with these characteristics can not meet those principles, nor adhere to the Convention on Civil and Political Rights, he said in Geneva, headquarters of the Office.
Colville said that 398 of those punished were not present at the trial, and that the charges were not clearly stated in the court against each of the defendants.
Today in Egypt another set of legal proceedings against 700 members of the Muslim Brotherhood will take place, including one against its supreme guide, Mohamed Badie.
In July 2013, the military removed Morsi from power, who had been elected after the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, by a popular uprising.
Hundreds of people were killed in clashes with authorities and between supporters and opponents of Morsi, during protests that followed his overthrow. (PL)