Egypt's reliance on military courts to try civilians

CNN's Amir Ahmed reports here on Egypt's continuing, large-scale reliance on military courts to try civilians. In one recent case,

The four defendants were accused of killing three military cadets in a bomb attack on a bus in Kafr El-Sheikh on April 15, 2015. Their subsequent trial and appeals became known in the media as the Kafr el-Sheikh case. Because the attack happened on a main street, the case came under military jurisdiction due to a recent presidential decree granting Egypt's military the authority for policing public places and land up to 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) from public roads.

According to CNN, Egypt has relied on military courts to try civilians since the mid-1960s.

The Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms reports that more than 13,000 civilians have already gone through military courts since 2013 -- with 106 of those civilians receiving the death penalty.

Human rights norms strongly disfavor the use of military courts to try civilians. Egypt is among the world's most persistent violator of this principle.