LONDON
Human rights group Amnesty International has warned of ‘grave flaws’ in Egypt's criminal justice system after a court in Egypt sentenced 683 people to death on Monday.
“Today’s decisions once again expose how arbitrary and selective Egypt’s criminal justice system has become,” the group said.
It said the verdict must be overturned.
The court decision has been referred to Egypt’s Grand Mufti before it can be ratified.
The mass penalty follows another for 528 earlier this month, given by the same court.
‘Complete contempt’
Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said Monday the court’s ruling had “utterly destroyed its credibility.”
“Egypt’s judiciary risks becoming just another part of the authorities’ repressive machinery, issuing sentences of death and life imprisonment on an industrial scale,” Sahraoui said.
“The court has displayed a complete contempt for the most basic principles of a fair trial and has utterly destroyed its credibility. It is time for Egypt’s authorities to come clean and acknowledge that the current system is neither fair nor independent or impartial.”
The 683 defendants, including Muhammad Badie - the Supreme Guide of the banned Muslim Brotherhood - are accused of political violence and murder.
The court also confirmed death sentences for 37 people and imposed terms of life imprisonment to 491 in the previous mass ruling.
“The verdict must not be allowed to stand – the convictions of the 37 sentenced to death and 491 sentenced to life in prison must be quashed and fair retrials with no possibility of the death penalty must be ordered immediately for all the defendants.”
All 528 defendants in the previous case were facing charges in connection with an attack on a police station in August 2013 and belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Defense lawyers and defendants alike were barred from the previous session on 24 March, in which the court indicated it would sentence all 528 to death.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty.
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