Mohamed Seif Eldin-Cairo

In conjunction with the International Day Against the Death Penalty, six human rights organizations launched a campaign to stop the death penalty in Egypt under the slogan "Stop the execution in Egypt" in solidarity with the recent death penalty, especially in cases of political dimension.

On October 10, the world marks the International Day Against the Death Penalty adopted by the United Nations as an International Day of Solidarity with Victims of Death Penalties.

For his part, the director of the Shehab Center for Human Rights, lawyer Khalaf Bayoumi said that "the campaign aims to highlight the death row in Egypt, especially in the period following the coup against the late President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013 to date, to clarify the size and dimensions of the crime. ".

Bayoumi told Al Jazeera Net that "among the objectives of the campaign is also to pressure the Egyptian regime through international mechanisms to codify this crime within Egyptian law."

He explained that "what was monitored and documented regarding the death sentences in Egypt exceeded 136 people have been the execution of 52 civilians, while 84 civilians are awaiting execution at any time since the coup 2013," noting that "the number is too large, and was not so Never during previous eras. "

The Egyptian human rights expert suggested that the victims of death sentences in Egypt are always subjected to various violations, the most serious of which are severe torture, to force them to confess to crimes they did not commit essentially, and called for a moratorium on executions and a review of the punishment and trial in accordance with the Constitution and international conventions.

Bayoumi called on the Egyptian government to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty, and to activate the first resolution of the UN General Assembly in 2007 calling for a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty, and to open a wide public debate - official and popular - On the death penalty and its usefulness, consider replacing it with other penalties, and work to reform the legislative and judicial system towards the protection of the right to life.

Last month, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a civil society organization, said that the Egyptian judiciary had sentenced 42 people to death in 13 different cases, while about 21 others awaiting papers were referred to the mufti for their opinion on the execution. Issues.

Since the overthrow of President Morsi in the summer of 2013, the Egyptian judiciary has issued about 1,500 death sentences against dissidents.