Egypt: Calls for an end to the death penalty

Press release
FIDH

The African Commission on Human and People?s Rights (ACHPR) which is
currently meeting in Banjul (The Gambia) will review Egypt?s third State
report. That report is supposed to present the measures adopted by the
Egyptian authorities to give effect to the rights guaranteed by the main
regional human rights instrument in Africa, the African Charter on Human
and Peoples? Rights.

On that occasion, the FIDH publishes a report on the death penalty in
Egypt in order to draw the attention of the African Commission on the
violations of international and regional standards taking place in that
framework. The report is the result of an international fact-finding
mission which was conducted in November 2004 in Egypt.

The report notably points to the great number of crimes which entail the
death penalty in Egypt and to the fact that civilians may be tried by
military courts, sentenced to death and executed without delay, in
violation of the rights of the defence and sometimes in abstentia. The
only remedy is the unlikely pardon of the President of the Republic.
Confessions obtained under duress are often accepted in court and form the
basis of the sentence.

The FIDH report recommends to the Egyptian authorities to put an immediate
end to the state of emergency which, after 23 years, is no longer
justified in Egypt today; the state of emergency is conducive to serious
violations of human rights, including administrative detention without any
effective judicial control, unfair trials of civilians before military
courts, and widespread torture of detainees, including during the
pre-trial stage. The Egyptian authorities should inquire into all
allegations of torture and bring to justice those responsible.

The FIDH, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) and the Human
Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRAAP) call upon the
African Commission to recommend that the Egyptian authorities conform to
its 1999 resolution, which urged all States parties that still maintain
the death penalty to consider establishing a moratorium on executions of
death penalty as a first step towards abolition.

FIDH, EOHR and HRAAP also urge the African Commission to make public such
recommendations.

Contact: FIDH (331) 43 55 25 18 EOHR (202) 363 68 11 HRAAP (202) 302 82 19