HRW joins the calls to halt the execution of three of the alleged Taba bombers, who were tried in one of Hosni’s kangaroo courts last year:
Egypt should not execute three men sentenced to death by a State Security Court for the 2004 bombings in Taba, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Human Rights Watch said that because of serious trial irregularities, including allegations of torture, coerced confessions, and prolonged incommunicado detention, the accused should be tried again before a court whose proceedings comply with international fair trial standards.
“If the government thinks these men are to blame for the outrages in Taba, it should prosecute them in a fair trial,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division. “Executing these men after such deeply flawed trials would be a travesty of justice.”
On November 30, 2006 a State Security Emergency Court in Isma`iliyya sentenced Yunis Muhammad Mahmud `Alyan, Usama Muhammad `Abd al-Ghani al-Nakhlawi, and Muhammad Jayiz Sabbah Hussein to death after convicting them in connection with the October 7, 2004 bombings in and around the resort city of Taba. This court, established under Egypt’s Emergency Law, does not provide the right of appeal. Only the President of the Republic can order a retrial or alter the sentences. Human Rights Watch said it had information that legal advisers in Mubarak’s office recently recommended that he ratify the death sentences against these men.