(Middle East Monitor) Egyptian authorities executed five detainees on Tuesday despite the African Commission of Peoples and Human Rights (the African Commission) requesting Egypt suspend the sentences pending its investigation into their lawfulness.
The African Commission is Africa’s highest Human Rights body and constituted by the African Charter. It is mandated to carry out tasks for the African Union’s Assembly of Heads of State and Government and one if its primary functions to protect human and people’s rights.
The African Commission issued interim measures following a Complaint submitted by the Egyptian Freedom & Justice Party (FJP) on behalf of detainees who had their death sentences confirmed and are without further rights of appeal. The Complaint alleges that the sentences had been imposed following a legal process falling far below the standard expected in international and Egyptian law. It detailed serious evidential and procedural flaws including the obtaining of confessions through torture and the denial of access to lawyers.
On 29th November 2017, the African Commission notified President Abdel Fatteh el-Sisi of the suspension request in a letter. The Commission informed the Egyptian President that it had seized the FJP Complaint and had registered it as a formal Communication. The letter set out the Commission’s intention to fully investigate the allegations made in the Complaint and asked the Egyptian government to provide its report on the implementation of the suspension within 15 days of the letter. Despite this, the Egyptian authorities carried out the executions.
The executions of the men came days after Egyptian authorities executed 15 detainees who had been convicted of attacking a police station in the Sinai. It is reported that, the largest mass execution in Egypt since 2005, took place before the relevant appeals process had concluded.