Monday, June 8, 2015

Researcher calls for end to Egyptian military courts

A researcher for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights says military courts should be ended, according to this article:
Many of the basics aspects of a fair trial are completely absent in these military court systems, [Sherif] Mohy El Deen says, such as defendants are always interrogated without legal defense present. Meanwhile, he says, the lawyers are not able to defend their client, as many are given restricted access, sometimes only seeing them once before a final sentence is announced, and the judge often does not admit any of the defendant's eyewitnesses or evidence. 
In October of 2014, the government also vastly widened the scope of who could be tried in a military tribunal to include anyone that attacks a government facility, which can be anything from power plants to bridges and everything else that falls on government property. 
Mohy El Deen pointed out the irony of trying many journalists, students and other civilians in military courts, while members of terrorist groups such as Ansar Bayt al-Maqis and Anjad Masr are being tried in civilian courts.

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