April 28, 2014

Sham trial results in mass death sentence in Egypt

located:	Egypt
editor:	Vanessa Ellingham

The criminal court in the city of Minya, Egypt, has sentenced 529 people to death, in a trial which Human Rights Watch says lacked basic due process.

This shocking mass death sentence came as a result of a trial where most of the accused were tried in absentia. The whole trial took less than an hour and it is reported that the defense lawyers were not permitted to present their cases.

Despite the difficult political climate in Egypt it is still disturbing that a court is able to hand out a death sentences en masse, without allowing for fair trials to take place.