16 executions carried out over single week in Alexandria, Cairo

16 executions carried out over single week in Alexandria, Cairo

Sixteen people sentenced to death were executed in Cairo last week. The increased use of death penalty in recent years has alarmed human rights organisations. Although the latter have condemned the handing down of death sentences by Egyptian courts, pointing out the lack of an independent and impartial judiciary applying minimal standards of due process and justice, the Egyptian government supports the persistence of the capital punishment.