Rights Group Decries 7,420 Military Court Trials of Civilians in Egypt

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) non-governmental group decried on Wednesday the trials of at least 7,420 Egyptian civilians in military courts over the past year and a half.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi decreed on October 27, 2014, to extend two-year jurisdiction for military courts in the absence of a parliament. HRW’s list of 7,420 civilians tried since then was provided by the Cairo-based Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms group.

"Apparently unsatisfied with tens of thousands already detained and speedy mass trials that discarded due process in the name of national security, al-Sisi essentially gave free rein to military prosecutors," HRW deputy Middle East and North Africa director Nadim Houry said.

Houry stressed that Sisi had "handed back to the military judiciary the powerful role it enjoyed in the months after Egypt’s [2011] uprising, when the nation was governed by a council of generals."

The New York City-based rights group called on the UN Human Rights Council as early as November 2014 to address Cairo’s perceived "reversal on human rights," including urging it to revoke the peaceful protests ban and to release those incarcerated for participating in protest rallies.

Egypt has been mired in political turbulence since the ouster of its first elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, following a series of mass anti-government protests. Sisi has served as Egypt's de-facto president since then and officially sworn into office in June 2014.