StormX
Banned
CAIRO — An Egyptian court has sentenced 529 people to death in the largest capital punishment case on record in Egypt, judicial authorities said Monday.
The alleged supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi were convicted on charges of killing a single police officer, the attempted murder of two other officers, and attacking a police station in the Nile Valley city of Minya in August. Sixteen people were acquitted.
The mass sentencing underscored the severity of an ongoing campaign by Egypt’s military-backed leaders to silence opposition, eight months after a military coup ousted Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader.
It was unclear what evidence prosecutors presented to support Monday’s ruling, which came after only two court sessions. A defense attorney in the case said that the defense was never given access to the evidence and that none of the defendants — or their attorneys — were allowed in court for the verdict.
When defense attorneys objected to court procedures during the first hearing Saturday, security personnel threatened members of the defense team to silence them, said one of the lawyers, Ahmed Shabeeb.
“This whole process is a sham,” he said.
Shabeeb said that the defense would appeal and that the sentences still need the approval of the country’s top religious authority before the executions could take place.
Under longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011, political prisoners could spend years on death row before sometimes being acquitted.
But rights groups said the mass sentencing set a fearsome precedent. “This has never happened in the history of the Egyptian judiciary, or the history of any judiciary, as far as I know,” said Mohamed Zera, a lawyer with the Cairo-based Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...f95692-6992-461e-aaf1-9bc84908a429_story.html
LOL
Another Obama success story.....
The alleged supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi were convicted on charges of killing a single police officer, the attempted murder of two other officers, and attacking a police station in the Nile Valley city of Minya in August. Sixteen people were acquitted.
The mass sentencing underscored the severity of an ongoing campaign by Egypt’s military-backed leaders to silence opposition, eight months after a military coup ousted Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader.
It was unclear what evidence prosecutors presented to support Monday’s ruling, which came after only two court sessions. A defense attorney in the case said that the defense was never given access to the evidence and that none of the defendants — or their attorneys — were allowed in court for the verdict.
When defense attorneys objected to court procedures during the first hearing Saturday, security personnel threatened members of the defense team to silence them, said one of the lawyers, Ahmed Shabeeb.
“This whole process is a sham,” he said.
Shabeeb said that the defense would appeal and that the sentences still need the approval of the country’s top religious authority before the executions could take place.
Under longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011, political prisoners could spend years on death row before sometimes being acquitted.
But rights groups said the mass sentencing set a fearsome precedent. “This has never happened in the history of the Egyptian judiciary, or the history of any judiciary, as far as I know,” said Mohamed Zera, a lawyer with the Cairo-based Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...f95692-6992-461e-aaf1-9bc84908a429_story.html
LOL
Another Obama success story.....
