Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet speaks from her office at the Palais Wilson on her first day as new United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, September 3, 2018. Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via REUTERS
September 9, 2018
GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Sunday urged Egypt’s appeals court to overturn mass death sentences handed down by a lower court after what she said was an “unfair trial” and criticized a law giving immunity to senior security forces.
An Egyptian court on Saturday delivered death sentences to 75 people, including prominent Islamist leaders, over a 2013 sit-in that ended with security forces killing hundreds of protesters.
If carried out, the sentences “would represent a gross and irreversible miscarriage of justice”, Bachelet said.
Defendants were denied the right to individual lawyers and to present evidence, while “the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence to prove individual guilt”, she said in a statement.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by David Goodman)
