FJP asks African Commission to urgently intervene in death sentences of 529 Egyptians

The Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt (FJP) and lawyers acting on behalf of the 529 Defendants who were sentenced to death in Egypt on 24 March 2014 have applied to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights for the urgent suspension of the death penalties.

The application to the African Commission states that the Egyptian military regime has systematically violated the fundamental rights of the 529 defendants to life and to a fair trial under the African Charter (of which Egypt is a signatory). The African Union (AU) has adopted a moratorium on the death penalty, which has been ignored by the military regime. The African Commission and the African Court are being urged to intervene to direct the military regime to stay the death penalties.

The application comes as a high level AU delegation arrives for the third time in Cairo to assess the interim authority’s transition to democracy. Egypt remains suspended as a member of the African Union following an illegal coup d’état in 2013, which resulted in the detention of the first democratically elected President and over 20,000 Egyptians who opposed the coup. The majority of these individuals including the President remain in illegal detention today.

Since the coup the military regime in Egypt has resorted to unprecedented levels of violence and repression in attempts to maintain its position. Shortly after the coup Egypt saw massacres of thousands of protestors leading to members of the military regime being accused of widespread and systematic human rights violations and international crimes.

The regime has actively used new laws and the judiciary to suppress all political opposition. It has held a sham referendum to give credence to a new constitution, which was drafted by individuals who were hand selected by the military regime.

The AU delegation will find that Egypt’s military regime is not engaged in a transition to democracy but is rapidly returning to military dictatorship. The AU, African Commission and the International Community cannot ignore the many illegal acts carried out by the military regime which include murder on a massive scale, routine use of torture, illegal detention of tens of thousands, political prosecutions of journalists and members of the opposition and suppression of freedom of expression and assembly.

The most recent act by the regime of the sentencing to death of 529 Egyptians is the most grotesque demonstration of Egypt’s clear decline away from democratic values. The FJP’s application to the African Commission highlights that the trial proceedings were a complete sham, lasting no more than a few hours, in which no evidence was presented against the individual accused, defence lawyers were silenced, and a guilty conviction was summarily entered against the entire group. It is as though no judicial proceedings took place at all and the 529 persons were condemned to be executed by the military regime.

The FJP’s lead international lawyer, Tayab Ali of ITN Solicitors said, ‘The in- ternational community must take an urgent and responsible view about the actions of the military regime in Egypt. The 529 death penalties is the clearest indication that the military regime does not have the remotest intention of allowing Egyptians to return to democracy. The international community should now openly condemn the military regime in Egypt and force it to allow the Egyptian people to live without fear in their struggle to regain democracy’.

The FJP asks the AU delegation and the African Commission to call for an immediate end to the tyranny of the military regime and intervene in the 529 death penalties issued in Egypt. It is clear that the International Community has to unequivocally stand against the continuing illegal actions of the military regime and to demand the return to a fully inclusive and free democracy.