HRW condemns Egypt hanging of 3 'political detainees'

The three men were executed in the northern city of Alexandria on Thursday, a security source told AFP, following a trial in which they stood accused of the 2014 murder and of having formed a "terrorist group".

The confessions of university students Ahmed Maher Hindawi and Almotaz Ghanem, and Abdel Hamid Metwalli, a computer shop owner, all members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, were "extracted under torture, one of the defendants alleged in a leaked letter" to human rights lawyers and activists, HRW said.

"The letter indicates that the men were tortured by electric shock and beatings in detention," it added.

HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director, Michael Page, accused Egypt's authorities of having committed "a glaring injustice by executing three men who apparently gave ‘confessions’ extracted through electric shock and other torture".

He urged the government in Cairo to "immediately impose a moratorium on executions, which magnify the cruelty of unfair trials".

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government for cracking down on secular and left-wing activists, as well as Islamists close to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The crackdown was launched in 2013 after Sisi, then army chief, overthrew Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, following street protests against the Islamist's turbulent one-year rule.

Killed in Egypt

Human rights groups estimate that as many as 60,000 political prisoners languish in Egyptian jails, significantly more than under Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship.

Muslim Brotherhood members and alleged supporters of Morsi are though to constitute the largest number, but the mass detentions also include journalists, leftists, human rights activists - basically anyone who speaks out against Sisi.

Some 13 new prisons have reportedly been built to accommodate the relentless number of detentions.

Activists in Egypt have launched a new campaign to shed light on all those killed in Egypt since the 2011 uprising in the country.

The website, dubbed, “Killed in Egypt” aims to document the “fallen heroes of the revolution” and “all the victims of the extrajudicial killings going on since 2011,” a press release said.

“This initiative started with a team of independent intellectuals interested in Egypt. Our aim in launching this project was to honour the victims, remind everyone of their rights and to also provide moral support to their families.” it continued.

The website showcases nearly 200 victims that have been killed since the Arab Spring, noting a brief history into their background, their age, occupation and how they died.

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