Article Summary Egypt S High Court Orders Retrial Of Policemen Linked To 37 Deaths
Alex Brown
1/23/15
Comparative Criminal Justice
Dr. Kilgallon
Article Summary The article I chose to summarize is entitled, “Egypt's High Court Orders Re-trial of Policemen Linked to 37 Deaths”. The re-trial was ordered by Egypt’s highest appeals court. The 37 were killed during political violence after President Mohamed Mursi’s removal. These 37 Islamists men died during what the Interior Ministry said was an attempted prison break. Later investigations revealed they died while in transit to the jail. They were in an overcrowded police van and tear gas was fired in.
This is the only case against security forces since Mursi’s ouster even though hundreds of his supporters died when these forces stormed protest two camps. A lower appeals court accepted the Public Prosecutor’s appeal. This led to the one of the officer’s prison sentence being cancelled. The sentence of the officer that was cancelled was originally set to be 10 years in jail for involuntary manslaughter and extreme negligence. The three other officers were given suspended sentences. The families of those who died in the police van are pleased that there will be a re-trial.
Human rights activists were upset by this verdict and called the original sentence lenient. Especially considering hundreds of supporters of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood have been sentenced to death. The international scrutiny of the judiciary has intensified because of this, in addition to high-profile court cases against activists and foreign journalists. Many of the family members of those who were killed in the police van had seen the cancelation of the 10-year jail term as a sign of the lack of justice in the country.
1/23/15
Comparative Criminal Justice
Dr. Kilgallon
Article Summary The article I chose to summarize is entitled, “Egypt's High Court Orders Re-trial of Policemen Linked to 37 Deaths”. The re-trial was ordered by Egypt’s highest appeals court. The 37 were killed during political violence after President Mohamed Mursi’s removal. These 37 Islamists men died during what the Interior Ministry said was an attempted prison break. Later investigations revealed they died while in transit to the jail. They were in an overcrowded police van and tear gas was fired in.
This is the only case against security forces since Mursi’s ouster even though hundreds of his supporters died when these forces stormed protest two camps. A lower appeals court accepted the Public Prosecutor’s appeal. This led to the one of the officer’s prison sentence being cancelled. The sentence of the officer that was cancelled was originally set to be 10 years in jail for involuntary manslaughter and extreme negligence. The three other officers were given suspended sentences. The families of those who died in the police van are pleased that there will be a re-trial.
Human rights activists were upset by this verdict and called the original sentence lenient. Especially considering hundreds of supporters of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood have been sentenced to death. The international scrutiny of the judiciary has intensified because of this, in addition to high-profile court cases against activists and foreign journalists. Many of the family members of those who were killed in the police van had seen the cancelation of the 10-year jail term as a sign of the lack of justice in the country.