Country: Iran
Egypt has been spiking on death sentences in 2019, with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s support.
Sisi’s government has worked to quash any free dialogue about the death penalty, while working in tandem to silence organisations that shed light on human rights abuses. Since 2014, when Sisi became president, Egypt has been among the 10 countries with the highest numbers of annual executions
Right now, there are about 50 people who are at risk of execution at any moment. Meanwhile President Sisi suggesting that executing detainees is part of “our humanity”, which is different from “your [European] humanity”. Sisi has aimed to portray human rights values as “Western” and “foreign” to Egypt.
Many brave Egyptians have campaigned against the death penalty, including lawyer Nasser Amin, anthropologist Reem Saad, and historian Khaled Fahmy, among others.
Let’s not forget that this executions spike is happening in a country whose security forces have killed hundreds of peaceful protesters since 2011 with near-absolute impunity. The Egyptian justice is unjust, and violates all laws of human rights.
ICHR Calls on Egypt’s Government to stop this surge of executions, as well as provide justice for families of all the previous executions. Trialling with out due process, torturing, then sentencing to death, is a crime against human rights, and the government of Egypt must answer.