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| Africa North | ||
| Egypt sends 439 to military trials over violence | ||
| 2014-12-14 | ||
| Egypt's top prosecutor referred 439 people to military tribunals on Saturday for acts of violence including the killing of three policemen last year, while authorities denied entry to a prominent American scholar arriving at Cairo's international airport, the latest incidents in the country's sweeping crackdown on dissent. Security officials said that one group was 139 men he described as Islamists from the southern province of Minya, while another was comprised of 300 from the Nile Delta province of Beheira. The cases involve last year's wave of violence that came in retaliation to a bloody police dispersal of an Islamist sit-in. In October, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi ordered the military to join forces with police in guarding vital state institutions. The decree stipulated that perpetrators of any attacks against state facilities will be tried in front of military tribunals. Human Rights Watch said Egypt's military courts "lack even the shaky due process guarantees provided by regular courts." The group said the decree “risks militarising the prosecution of protesters and other government opponents."
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| Posted by:Steve White |