An Egyptian Kangaroo court in March this year sentenced 10 people to death and five others to life in prison for allegedly forming a "terrorist group" to plot attacks on security forces and other institutions.
Egypt has cracked down on anti-government elements since the overthrow in July 2013 of Mohammad Mursi. Hundreds of anti-government people, including Muslim Brotherhood supporters and members, have received death sentences since 2013, and Egypt has carried out dozens of executions, according to security sources and rights groups.
According to Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide database, in recent years there has been a sharp increase in Egyptian courts' use of capital punishment, with the number of death sentences.
The Cornell Center believes there are at least 1,700 people under sentence of death, but no official figures are available due to intense state secrecy surrounding capital punishment. Amnesty International indicates that at least 1,413 death sentences were issued between 2007 and 2014.
Interestingly, in January this year, an Egyptian kangaroo court handed 268 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi up to 25-year jail terms over a violent pro-Morsi sit-in following his removal in July 2013.
Giza Criminal Court sentenced 23 defendants to 25 years in prison, 223 to 15 years and 22 to three years, ordering them to pay altogether a fine of more than $2.1 million for the damages they reportedly caused to the surrounding zoo, public park and college building during their 45-day sit-in.
Egyptian judicial system has become a joke
In January this year CNN quoted an Egyptian attorney as saying that Egypt is using death sentences to settle scores.
Human rights advocates say the alarming numbers recorded by the Egyptian Coordination for Rights & Freedoms and the Initiative for Personal Rights are shocking -- but the stories behind them are even more harrowing, the CNN said adding:
What happened to four families from the northern city of Kafr el-Sheikh is a case in point. After more than a year of campaigning to have their loved ones' death sentences commuted in a case clouded by allegations of flaws in Egypt's judicial system, they received phone calls directing them to collect their relatives' bodies early on January 2.
Tellingly, an Egyptian Kangaroo Court in February 2016 sentenced a four-year-old child to life imprisonment. The child, Ahmed Mansour Qurani Ali, was convicted on four counts of murder and eight counts of attempted murder. The Egyptian military admitted the mistake only after the story had already circled the globe.
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