The undersigned organizations are extremely concerned about the Minya Felony Court's decision yesterday, Monday, March 4, to refer the cases of 529 defendants sentenced to death to the state grand mufti for his opinion. The defendants were sentenced in connection with the violence in Matay, Minya, following the dispersal of the two sit-ins held by supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi in Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda Squares. The decision, and the court's readiness to sentence such a large number of people to death in abbreviated trials, constitutes a dangerous, unprecedented shift in the Egyptian judiciary's treatment of such cases and represents a grave violation of both the right to a fair trial and the right to life.
The court issued this decision less than a week after the start of the trial of the defendants, who were charged in connection with violence that led to the death of Col. Mustafa Ragab, the deputy chief of the Matay police station, the attempted murder of other police officers, the theft of weapons from the police station, the destruction of public and private property, and the torching of several private cars.
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