The Honorable John F. Kerry Secretary of State U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20520 Dear Secretary Kerry, We write as an informal group of organizations and individuals who are scholars, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and practitioners out of concern for the 529 Egyptians unfairly sentenced to death by an Egyptian court on Monday, March 24, 2014, and the impending trial of at least 700 additional defendants who are expected to receive similar sentences. The Egyptian court stated that those convicted are guilty of various charges, including the murder of an Egyptian policeman; however, the death sentences are evidence of a larger, ongoing campaign using false charges to target, discredit, and repress any opposition to the current military regime since the removal of President Mohammed Morsi from power. The verdicts and sentencing of these Egyptians came after only three days, affording each defendant only nine minutes to their trial. According to defense lawyers, the conditions under which the defendants were convicted did not uphold legal standards as they were unable to present the defendant’s case and close to 400 defendants were tried in absentia. The ruling by the court is the largest set of simultaneous death sentences handed down to defendants not only in Egypt’s modern history, but anywhere in the world. An additional 700 anti-coup demonstrators are also scheduled to be tried, and countless members of the opposition have been killed, detained, or disappeared over the last nine months. While the 529 who were sentenced to death have until April 28th to appeal the court’s decision, it is doubtful that they will be provided full recourse of the law, given the military regime’s crackdown on the opposition since the coup and ahead of upcoming elections. As put by a Cairo-based human rights lawyer, the recent actions by Egypt’s judiciary have turned the branch “from a tool for achieving justice to an instrument for taking revenge”. Without checking such behaviors, Egypt will spiral into further unrest, and the Egyptian people’s chances for democracy will be highly compromised. We urge the United States and the international community to call on the interim Egyptian government to ensure all of its citizens are afforded fair proceedings that respect the international standards of due process and civil liberties, allow international monitoring of the legal proceedings, and uphold international human rights standards for all Egyptians. Sincerely, ORGANIZATIONS AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRACY & HUMAN RIGHTS IN BAHRAIN (ADHRB) AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION CENTER FOR INQUIRY COMMUNITY OF SANT’EGIDIO, USA COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS (CAIR) INSTITUTE ON RELIGION AND PUBLIC POLICY RUSSIAN ORTHODOX AUTONOMOUS CHURCH OF AMERICA UNION OF COUNCILS FOR JEWS IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION (UCSJ) UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, GENERAL BOARD OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY VOICES FOR FREEDOM Individuals C. Naseer Ahmad Raimundo C. Barreto Jr., Ph.D. Director, Division on Freedom & Justice Baptist World Alliance Dr. Joel C. Hunter Senior Pastor Northland – A Church Distributed Amjad Mahmood Khan National Director of Public Affairs Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA Greg Mitchell President The Mitchell Firm Scott Morgan President Red Eagle Enterprises William C. Walsh Bisceglie and Walsh
Posted on: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 01:37:49 +0000
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