Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

is a legal penalty in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. The state carried out at least 44 executions in 2016, at least 35 in 2017, and at least 43 in 2018. On 8 September 2020, a court in Egypt sentenced 75 people to death and 47 others to life imprisonment. They were charged with murder or membership in a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

group. The British newspaper Independent has reported that Najia Bounaim of Amnesty International

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and North Africa described the court's sentence to “disgraceful" and "a mockery of justice". The method of execution is

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

for civilian convictions, and by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...

for convictions by commissioned military personnel at the time of duty. The

Grand Mufti The Grand Mufti (also called Chief Mufti, State Mufti and Supreme Mufti) is the head of regional muftis, Islamic jurisconsults, of a state. The office originated in the early modern era in the Ottoman empire and has been later adopted in a num ...

of Egypt

Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam ( ar, شوقي إبراهيم عبد الكريم علّام) is the 19th and current Grand Mufti of Egypt through Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, succeeding Ali Gomaa. Biography Allam was born in the Nile Delta governor ...

, is responsible under Egyptian law for reviewing all death sentences in Egypt. Legally, his opinion is consultative and non-binding to the presiding court that handed down the death sentence.

Port Said Stadium disaster

On 26 January 2013, an

ian court gave death sentences to 21 people convicted of involvement in a mass attack by fans of the

Al-Masry Club Al Masry Sporting Club ( ar, النادي المصري للألعاب الرياضية) is an Egyptian sports club based in Port Said, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team, that competes in the Egyptian Premier Leag ...

against fans of the Al-Ahly Sports Club at Port Said Stadium on 1 February 2012. At least 72 people died in violence that erupted in

Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...

, during the Port Said Stadium disaster. A retrial was ordered on 6 February 2014 and the number sentenced to death was reduced to 11 on 19 April 2015.

2014 mass trials

Amid political unrest following the

2013 Egyptian coup d'état The 2013 Egyptian coup d'etat took place on 3 July 2013. Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coalition to remove the democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitu ...

, a court sentenced 683 suspected

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( '), is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic studies, Islamic scholar and scho ...

members to death on 28 April 2014, including the group's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, and confirmed the death sentences of 37 of 529 alleged supporters previously condemned. The defendants were accused of violence at two sit-ins in Cairo, held by supporters of deposed President

Mohamed Morsi Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012deadly clearance of on 14 August 2013. Mohamed Elmessiry, an

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

researcher monitoring the cases, said they "lacked basic fair trial guarantees". The defendants from the first case whose death sentences were not upheld were each sentenced to 25 years in prison. Judge Saeed Youssef first attracted international condemnation and prompted an outcry from foreign human rights groups after he handed down the initial sentence for the 529 defendants on March 24, following a brief trial marked by irregularities. Later he reversed 492 of those 529 death sentences, commuting most of them to life in prison. Egyptian law requires that death sentences are confirmed by the presiding judge after reviewing the opinion of the

Grand Mufti of Egypt Egypt's Dar al-Ifta ( ar, دار الإفتاء المصرية ) is an Egyptian Islamic advisory, justiciary and governmental body established as a centre for Islam and Islamic legal research in Egypt in 1313 AH / 1895 CE. It offers Muslims ...

, the country's leading official legal expert on religious matters. The Mufti's opinion to the judge is confidential. The guilty verdict and death sentences are still subject to review by appellate courts. "The case killed the credibility of the Egyptian judicial system," said Elmessiry of

2020 mass executions

accused Egyptian authorities of executing 57 people in October and November alone, nearly double the number recorded in the whole of 2019. Amnesty said the spike in executions followed a botched breakout attempt in September at the

Tora Prison Tora Prison ( arz, سجن طره '; ) is an Egyptian prison complex for criminal and political detainees, located in Tora, Egypt. The complex is situated in front of the Tora El Balad metro station. The main buildings in the Tora Prison complex a ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

. Four police officers and four death-row prisoners died in the attempt. Amnesty International’s annual global review of death penalty ranked Egypt as the world’s third most frequent executioner in 2020. Egypt executed at least 107 people in 2020 following grossly unfair trials and forced confessions as lawyers couldn’t meet their clients or conduct proper investigations due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Venues

Executions by

have generally been carried out at the Cairo Central Prison. However prisons of Wadi Al Natrun and Burj Al Arab both house an execution chamber.

Notes

{{Asia topic, Capital punishment in

Murder in Egypt Law of Egypt Human rights abuses in Egypt