8 May 2014updated 24 Jun 2021 1:00pm

The UK must stand against Egypt’s disregard of human rights

The mass death penalties and the wider crackdown on the opposition cannot be tolerated.

(Photo By Egyptian security forces monitor the streets in the southern city of Minya on April 28, 2014, after a court sentenced 682 alleged Islamists and a Muslim Brotherhood leader to death. Photograph: Getty Images.)

Last month, 528 supporters of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi were sentenced to death. This rightly brought widespread condemnation by international observers, including the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay. Most of the death sentences have now been commuted but worryingly, 37 of the death sentences remain in place.

Then the world was shocked by a second round of mass death penalties – to 683 Muslim Brotherhood supporters, including Mohamed Badie, one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders. Again, the decision and the subsequent judicial procedures leading to them are being widely condemned by international observers and human rights monitors and are confirming negative perceptions of the path Egypt appears to be taking.