The Human Rights Committee of the Egyptian Parliament announced on Sunday its rejection of the calls of international and local rights organizations demanding the abolition of death penalty in Egypt.
According to the committee, these demands don’t comply with the Egyptian constitution and Islamic Sharia. The committee added that death sentences cannot be altered by long-term prison sentences. It further added that this penalty is “not violating human right to live, but rather a penalty handed to someone who violated the right of another person to live”.
Head of the committee Alaa Abed said that the death penalty is only imposed on people who shed blood, adding that the process of issuing the verdict against defendants takes too long and several approvals.
In his statement, Abed said, “Islam is the religion of the Egyptian state; hence the death penalty cannot be abolished. Also, the LGBT rights that some states call on Egypt to support them, this is against our culture, religion, and traditions.”
The calls of rights organization have been renewed after the court of appeals upheld last week death penalties against 11 defendants. The defendants were sentenced to death for involvement in the Port Said Stadium Massacre that occurred in February 2012.
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