The undersigned human rights organizations condemn the Court of Cassation’s 14 June verdict upholding the death sentence against twelve leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Case no. 2985 of 2015, known as the Rabaa Dispersal Case.
Files: Judiciary affairs
Update: Summons of @EIPR executive director Hossam Bahgat to the Public Prosecutor’s Office has now been moved up to Wednesday 16 June
Today, Patrick's lawyers have maintained the need for the prosecution to disclose the justifications for its request to continue Patrick's imprisonment, under ArticleNo.136 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the accused's defense to refute and refute it and for the court's balance between the prosecution's statements and the defendant's defense. In the face of the lawyers ’request, the Public Prosecutor reiterated his general phrase, which says,“ The justifications for remand are available. ”.
The continued detention of Islam Orabi despite obtaining a decision to release him and having paid his bail constitutes a crime of unlawful detention, and is punishable under Article 280 of the Penal Code which states: “Any person who arrests, jails or detains a person without order by the relevant authorities and in other than the cases in which laws and regulations authorize the arrest of suspects, he shall be punished with detention or a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds”. Orabi’s disappearance from the police department increases fears about his safety and the possibility of deterioration of his health, which may constitute a danger to his life.
Today, February 7th, marks a year since Patrick Zaki - the researcher at EIPR and Master’s student at the University of Bologna- was arrested from Cairo Airport. Since then, he has been on remand detention. Last week, the Third Felonies circuit ordered the renewal of his detention for 45 additional days. In the face of this incomprehensible intransigence EIPR can’t but repeat its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of Patrick Zaki due to the absence of justifications for remand detention and demand the dropping of all charges against him.
South Cairo Criminal court issued yesterday its decision on Patrick’s hearing session, renewing his remand detention for an additional 45 day pending the investigation in the case 7245/2019. The hearing was held yesterday in Patrick’s presence and the presence of his lawyers from EIPR. Patrick has already spent more than 9 months in remand detention.
The recent developments also come as a direct response to our activities in the field of international advocacy, and in particular our meetings with a number of diplomatic missions, the most recent of which was a meeting held at EIPR’s headquarters on November 3rd with 13 ambassadors and accredited diplomats, who discussed ways to improve human rights conditions in Egypt.
By the end of October 2020, the justice system in Egypt had carried out the largest number of executions (in different cases of a varying nature) since it began its expansion of the application of death penalty in the last five years. A total of 53 people were executed during the course of October, the last of these executions took place on October 28 when four convicts were executed in a judgement related to the killing of 17 people in a nightclub fire in Agouza.
