Egypt Sentences 529 to Death for Single Cop Killing
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iStock/Thinkstock(CAIRO) — An Egyptian court decision to sentence 529 people to death for the killing of a single police officer has alarmed both Washington and human rights groups.
There are concerns that the verdicts, which occurred with neither the defendants or their lawyers in the courtroom, further demonstrate the new government’s determination to wipe out any dissent less than nine months after President Mohamed Morsi was removed from power.
The death sentence was imposed after just two court sessions. Lawyers for those tried said they were not given access to any of the evidence that the government used to present its case.
The police officer was killed by a mob during an attack on a precinct in the city of Minya last August.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the outcome of the trial “defies logic” while the Cairo-based Human Rights Center for Assistance to Prisoners claimed that there’s never been a precedent before of such a mass sentencing.
Nonetheless, it’s not an automatic death sentence since defense lawyers can appeal and in the past, death row prisoners have been known to languish in prison for years.
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