In Egypt, there is an alarming trend towards an increase in the number of executions. This is reported at site of Amnesty International.
According to representatives of the organization, in October and November alone, at least 57 men and women were executed in the country, which is almost double the number of those sentenced to death in all of 2019. As specified, then 32 people were sentenced to death.
Human rights activists fear that the death toll may be higher, since Egypt does not publish statistics on the number of those sentenced or executed. In addition, the authorities do not notify the relatives of the convicted before the execution of the sentence. It is indicated that previously an anonymous source told local media that 91 executions have been carried out in the country since October, but members of the organization could not confirm this information.
It is noted that at least 15 of those deprived of their lives were involved in cases of political violence that followed the unfair trials, where confessions were allegedly forced out of people. Amnesty International are confident that human rights have been repeatedly violated during the court proceedings. “The Egyptian authorities have carried out a horrific string of executions in the past few months, resulting in dozens of deaths, many of them unfairly convicted,” said Philip Luther, Director of Research and Advocacy for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
In November it became known that US Department of Justice made amendments to the rules for the implementation of the death penalty, expanding them. Now local authorities will be able to execute criminals convicted at the federal level not only by lethal injection, but also in a gas chamber, in an electric chair or by firing squad.