EGYPT: UN rights chief wants mass death sentences overturned

The UN’s human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, has asked Egypt to overturn mass death sentences handed down to members of the opposition, including senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On Saturday, an Egyptian court delivered death sentences to 75 people over their participation in a 2013 sit-in protest at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in Cairo that ended with security forces killing hundreds of protesters.

Those present were protesting a military coup a month earlier, which overthrew Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi – a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

If carried out, the sentences “would represent a gross and irreversible miscarriage of justice”, Bachelet said, further describing the trials as “unfair”.

Defendants were denied the right to individual lawyers and to present evidence, while “the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence to prove individual guilt”, she added in a statement.