CAIRO -

The echoes of an Egyptian court's demand - in a precedent of its kind - to broadcast the death sentence or part of it live are still echoing in the Egyptian street, and it received a wide interaction on social networking sites.

Last Sunday, the Mansoura Criminal Court, as part of its death sentence against Muhammad Adel, accused of killing his fellow university student Naira Ashraf, demanded the legislator to introduce an amendment to the law regulating prisons organized for the implementation of the death penalty, allowing the execution of executions, or part of them, to be broadcast on the air, to achieve public deterrence.

Article 474 of the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that “the execution of the death sentence shall be a special procedure for executing the sentence in a public prison, in the presence of an agent of the Public Prosecutor, the prison warden, the prison doctor or any other doctor assigned by the prison.”

The court stated in its rationale, “and the court, at the end of its ruling, notes on the occasion of this case, that when it has spread in society - recently - the slaughter of victims without guilt openly during the day, and the media-obsessed broadcast the crime in public, the safe people are terrified by fear and panic, and the people are scattered. With the same crime again, from this point of view, is it not time for the legislator to make the execution of punishment with the right witness, just as the blood shed without the right became witnessed?

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And the court added, “The order with which the court calls upon the legislator to address, by amendment, the text of Article 65 of the law regulating reform and community rehabilitation centers organizing the execution of the death penalty, to permit broadcasting the execution of death sentences videotaped on the air, even if in a small part of the start of this procedure. Implementation, in this, may be what achieves the desired general deterrence, which has not yet been achieved by broadcasting the utterance of the rulings alone. “And it heals the hearts of a believing people, and Idhub al-Tawbah 14).

The "Nira Ashraf" hashtag was issued on the social networking site Twitter in Egypt, and many called for the execution of the death sentence live in front of public opinion, to serve as an example to all those who tempted themselves to infringe on the lives of safe people.

While others expressed their refusal to broadcast the death sentence on television, pointing out that it is not required to heal the accused or his family, especially since the punishment imposed by the court on the accused is a deterrent in itself for those who want to be deterred.

For the intervening cute people.. God Almighty said,


“And let a group of believers witness their torment.” #Naira_Ashraf

— mohamed sami (@Msamidawoud) July 25, 2022

Killing her in public They executed him publicly, even part of the execution will be broadcast so that it will be a lesson for everyone who considers him to be more honorable.

— Mohamed Nabil (@Mohamed59492903) July 25, 2022

The issue of the execution on the air is not agreed upon, because we must also take care of his mother and his sisters # Naira_Ashraf

— Mohamed Salah (@menasy2001) July 25, 2022

And do not be entrusted with your sisters daughters, and do not be entrusted with your mother, and do not be entrusted with Naira, and she had a look at her when she said to you, “Why do you know why?”


Because she is feet from you and your execution is mercy for all and the first of them is your family . May God have mercy on you,

Nayra , and give patience to your family, and your right


will return ,


God willing.

— Hassan Elsayed Lawyer (@Hassan158585) July 25, 2022

The death penalty is a deterrent in itself

The case that preoccupied local and regional public opinion and transcended its resonance to the international media, the ruling was issued urgently, unusually, after it became the talk of the people, especially as it was documented by surveillance cameras and broadcast on social media, which angered and angered the Egyptian street.

Far from being drawn to the emotions and desires of public opinion and the people of the victim to recover from the murderer or the desire for public deterrence, former judge Muhammad Suleiman says, “Despite the brutality of the crime and the way it was executed, the death penalty is a deterrent in itself, and quick justice is in the speed of litigation and the appropriate punishment for a crime Murder".

Suleiman explained - in statements to Al-Jazeera Net - that "the court's request to broadcast the verdict on the air is a precedent of its kind, and the scenes that were shown before the execution on a few and rare occasions were under the direct guidance of the executive authority and not the judiciary."

Suleiman - who previously served as the head of the Sohag Court in the south of the country - pointed out that Egyptian society witnesses daily killings and many of them are sentenced to death.

What happened in Mansoura?

And the city of Mansoura - north of the capital Cairo - witnessed a heinous crime on June 20, when a student slaughtered his colleague at the university in front of the gate of her college after an argument between them, while the people managed to arrest him and catch him.

The crime received a wide response and interaction on Egyptian and Arab social media platforms.

48 hours after the crime was committed, the accused was referred to the criminal court;

He was accused of deliberately and premeditatedly killing the victim student, Naira Ashraf, and surprising her with a knife, stabbing her several times and slitting her throat with the intent of taking her life.

It took only two days for the court to issue its decision to refer the case file to the Mufti, which is before the court decides whether to impose the death penalty on the accused.

Yells and chants.. the joy of the people after referring the papers of the killer # Naira_Ashraf to the Mufti to take an opinion on his execution pic.twitter.com/eueSMxj1e7

- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) June 28, 2022

Not the first time

And the Egyptian TV had previously broadcast the death sentence for a number of the accused, and according to local websites, in 1998 the TV broadcast the moments before the execution of 3 accused of killing the engineer, Nanis Fouad, her daughter Hadeel and her son Anas, for the purpose of theft.

The decision to broadcast the executions live was by order of the late President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, and not at the request of the court.

The last death sentence, pictures of which were broadcast in Egypt, was the appearance of former Egyptian army officer Hisham Ashmawi, who was convicted in two final verdicts of crimes related to terrorism, before the execution by hanging in March 2020.