An Egyptian court has sentenced two supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi to death in connection with violence that followed his ouster last year.
On Saturday, the court in the northern city of Alexandria convicted the two defendants of throwing two young people off the roof of a building during mass protests demanding Morsi’s reinstatement on July 5 last year, AFP reported.
The two convicts are among 63 defendants on trail in the city. Local media say the court will issue verdicts on the remaining defendants on May 19.
International rights groups expressed outrage after the military-installed government on Monday handed down death sentences to 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters after just two hearings.
In a statement issued on Monday, Amnesty International described the mass death sentences as a “grotesque example of the shortcomings and the selective nature of Egypt’s justice system.”
“Imposing death sentences of this magnitude in a single case makes Egypt surpass most other countries’ use of capital punishment in a year,” said Amnesty International Deputy Middle East and North Africa Program Director Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
According to the Amnesty official, the mass death penalties have been delivered to Morsi’s supporters while Egyptian courts continue to “ignore gross human rights violations by the security forces.”
Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since Morsi, the country’s first democratically-elected president, was deposed by the army on July 3, 2013. Hundreds have lost their lives in the ensuing violence across the country.
Since then, Egypt’s military-backed government has launched a bloody crackdown on Morsi’s supporters and arrested thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members, including the party’s senior leaders.
MN/NN/AS
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