Egypt: Military Regime Carries Out 1st Execution Since Morsi's Ouster On the Sole Basis of Confessions Extracted Under Torture

press release

On 7 March 2015, the Egyptian authorities carried out their first execution since Morsi's ouster in July 2013, despite Alkarama's urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions (SUMX) asking the authorities to halt the execution. Mahmoud Hassan Ramadan Abdelnaby Negm was sentenced to death on 16 May 2014 following an unfair trial conducted by Alexandria's Criminal Court who admitted as evidence the confessions Hassan obtained under torture. His sentence was later confirmed by the Grand Mufti of Egypt and his appeal rejected by the Court of Cassation on 5 February 2015.

Brutally arrested as part of a wave of arrest in Alexandria on 8 July 2013, a few days after General Sisi's military coup, following clashes between pro-Morsi and pro-coup demonstrators, Hassan and 57 other people had been charged with "murder" and "attempted murder" of children in addition to other charges related to the demonstrations. The media coverage of their arrests quickly became biased, undermining the principle of presumption of innocence of the accused and making it harder to prepare his defence.

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