Egypt Issued Highest Number of Death Sentences Worldwide in 2021

CAIRO (Middle East Eye/MEMO) – Egypt sentenced at least 356 people to death in 2021, becoming the world’s top issuer of death sentences, Amnesty International said in its annual report.
The British rights group documented 520 executions in seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa, out of a total 579 recorded globally, with an increase of 19 percent compared to 2020.
The death sentences in the Middle East were mostly issued following proceedings that lacked due process, Amnesty said.
By the end of 2021, more than two thirds of the world’s countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice, Amnesty said.
The death penalty in Egypt continued to be imposed on the basis of testimonies extracted after torture, the report said.
Amnesty International also called on Egypt to lift restrictions on civic space to ensure a successful COP27.
“Egypt’s abysmal record of cracking down on peaceful dissent and civic space must not be allowed to undermine the success of the UN Climate Change Conference,” the rights watchdog said.
It also called on participating governments to take the opportunity to push for tangible human rights progress in the country and warned that the Egyptian government must not use it as an opportunity to rebrand and deflect criticism of their human rights record.
However, activists and rights organizations say they are skeptical about the Egyptian government’s pledge to allow protesters to demonstrate in a “facility adjacent to the conference center” at the upcoming COP27.
Egypt is this year’s host for COP27, which will be held in the Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in November.
In an interview with the Associated Press Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that protests would be allowed: “We are developing a facility adjacent to the conference center that will provide them the full opportunity of participation, of activism, of demonstration of voicing that opinion.”
“We will also provide them access, as is traditionally done on one day of the negotiations, to the negotiating hold itself.”
Protests at the global conference traditionally last for days, yet in Egypt protests have been banned and thousands of peaceful demonstrators jailed.
In 2013 the Egyptian government issued a law criminalizing protests, punishable by jail sentences and hefty fines.
In 2019 thousands of activists, journalists, politicians and other civilians were arrested following anti-government protests that took place across Egypt.
Several key players in the 2011 revolution have been arrested and detained whilst in August 2013 security forces massacred and killed up to 1,000 protesters in Rabaa Square.