Take action against death sentences in Egypt

In late March an Egyptian court sentenced 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death in a trial lasting only two days and condemned as “grotesque” by Amnesty International.

The Egyptian government is intent on crushing any resistance to its rule. Most of the Brotherhood’s leadership have been imprisoned and hundreds of members and supporters killed.

But it’s not just the Brotherhood that is in the military’s crosshairs. The regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who last month stood down as head of the military in order to run for president in this year’s elections, is emboldened and attempting to eliminate all trace of the revolution.

The military wants to sap the life out of any challenge to its rule, and return “stability” – ruling class code for “submission and subservience” – to the country.

Following the guilty verdicts and death sentences handed down last month, EgyptSolidarityInitiative.org launched an appeal for solidarity. The following is a statement that more than 1,000 people from 50 countries have already put their names to in a gesture of solidarity and to demand the sentences be overturned.

Signatures will be published and delivered to the Egyptian embassy by 28 April, the likely date for an appeal against the sentences.

Sign on statement

We condemn the death sentences issued by a court in Minya province in Egypt on 24 March 2014 against 529 defendants who were found guilty of the murder of a police officer during the storming of Matay police station in August 2013.

The use of the death sentence against such a large number of defendants underscores that the current regime is not interested in finding out the truth about the events which led to this prosecution but rather in imposing collective punishment on its opponents.

The sentences were issued without hearing any arguments from the defence in a trial which lasted only 45 minutes according to defence lawyers.

International and local human rights organisations have documented numerous cases of mass arbitrary arrests, lack of access to legal representation and severe torture of detainees since the military’s intervention to remove Muslim Brotherhood affiliated president Muhammed Morsi from power on 3 July 2013.

We also note that according to Amnesty International around 1400 people were killed between 30 June 2013 and January 2014, the vast majority of them protesters. According to local human rights activists the numbers of detainees arrested during the same period may be as many as 21000.

In such circumstances it is impossible to have any confidence in this judgement.

We call for an end to the violent repression of protests in Egypt and fair trials for all accused.

Journalists Targeted

Al Jazeera producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, and correspondent Peter Greste are currently on trial in Cairo.

The trio were accused by the Egyptian interior ministry of reporting that was “damaging to national security”.

They stand charged with falsifying news and having links with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.

The reality is that they have been detained for doing their jobs. “This case is part of a violent campaign against the freedom of expression and journalism”, Gamal Eid, head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

Journalism is a dangerous vocation in Egypt. Five were imprisoned in 2013 and seven have been killed in the last 12 months. The current case has been adjourned until 10 April. The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the union that covers journalists in Australia, on 4 April launched the “30 Days of Press Freedom” campaign.

The campaign will focus on the plight of Greste, an Australian citizen, in the lead-up to UNESCO World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

[For information visit walkleys.com/30-days-launch.]