40 defendants executed in November, December 2020

At least 37 people sentenced to death were executed by state authorities in November last year, along with a further three in December, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

A total of 74 received preliminary death sentences in the courts over the same timeframe, EIPR reported.

EIPR noted that data on Egypt's use of the death penalty over the past three years has shown a “steady increase in the number of cases that end with a death sentence” in Egypt, as well as an increase in the number of people sentenced to death in single cases, and the total number of death sentences issued by Egyptian courts in one year.

Building their research based on contact with the families of those sentenced to death as well as on news reporting in the media, EIPR reported that at least 30 people were handed the death penalty in December, and 44 in November. Three executions were carried out in December and 37 executions in November. 

On top of those numbers, 16 defendants were issued preliminary death sentences in December that were referred to the grand mufti of Al-Azhar for his opinion, a formality needed to carry out the sentence.

Fifty-three executions were carried out in October, a figure which marked the largest number of death sentences to be carried out in one month over the last five years.

Of those who were executed by state authorities over November and December, the vast majority were convicted in the criminal courts on murder charges, and included blacksmith Ahmed Shaaban Awad, a group of 10 people convicted of pre-meditated murder who were executed in Minya, nine executed in Alexandria, 10 more in Tanta, two people sentenced for murder, four unnamed women executed in Minya, Mahmoud M.A. executed for a murder that took place in Qena, and a farmer executed for a murder that took place in Kafr al-Sheikh.

More than 100 crimes are punishable by death under Egyptian law, including a host of drug and harm-related offenses, as well as terrorist offenses and infractions set out in the Code of Military Justice.

EIPR maintains that the death penalty “constitutes a grave violation of human rights, does not achieve the desired deterrence, and is not enjoined by Islamic law (shari’a) as commonly perceived,” according to a 2018 report on the issue.

“Despite a global trend toward ending the death penalty, demonstrated by various forums acting to this end, the official position of the Egyptian government is to encourage the persistence of capital punishment,” EIPR said in a 2017 statement.