By Adam Morrow
CAIRO, Nov 8 2007 (IPS)

Egyptians are likely to watch the upcoming U.N. General Assembly vote on a moratorium on executions – to be held in the coming weeks – with interest. But while many in this majority Muslim country would welcome a resolution aimed at reining in the use of capital punishment, there remain serious reservations about making any pledges for the “total abolition” of the practice.

“Our society has its own beliefs and standards,” Sayyid Askar, Muslim Brotherhood MP and member of a parliament’s religious affairs committee, told IPS. “Even if there is an international trend towards the abolition of capital punishment, we aren’t interested in imitating other societies in this matter.”

Askar was commenting ahead of the tabling in the U.N. of an EU-supported initiative for a worldwide moratorium on executions. The Muslim Brotherhood, formally banned under restrictions against parties based on religion, represents roughly one-fifth of the national assembly which is controlled by the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak.

Under Mubarak, the use of the death penalty has reportedly increased over the past decade, although there is little official data available on the subject. According to the Cairo-based Maat Centre for Judicial and Constitutional Studies, at least 20 death sentences were handed out last year.

Under the current terms of Egyptian law, some 90 different crimes can warrant execution, including premeditated murder, rape and drug-related offences, as well as a number of so-called “political offences” such as “attempting to overthrow the regime by force”. Over the course of the past decade, death sentences have been meted out for most if not all of these transgressions.

Islamic Law, by contrast, mandates the death penalty for only a small handful of serious offences, which include premeditated murder, violent crimes such as armed robbery, apostasy, and adultery. Although Article 2 of the national charter states that Islamic Law constitutes “the principle source of legislation,” apostasy and adultery are not capital crimes in Egypt today.

In agreement with most human-rights organisations, Islamist politicians support the elimination of death penalties for all other crimes that currently carry capital sentences, particularly those of a political nature. They are adamant, however, that the practice of capital punishment not be entirely eliminated.

“Islamic Law maintains that the death penalty for the most serious of crimes is necessary for the cohesion and stability of society as a whole,” said Askar.

Local opponents of capital punishment, however, argue that the case against such a grave punishment resides in the fact that a death sentence, once carried out, is irreversible.

“It’s a penalty that cannot be undone,” Ayman Aqeel, head of the Maat Centre and coordinator for the Egyptian Coalition against the Death Penalty, told IPS. “And in Egypt, where there’s a good deal of official corruption and negligence, there have been several past cases when convicts condemned to death were subsequently vindicated.”

“The alliance therefore supports the abolition of the death penalty for all crimes except premeditated murder,” explained Aqeel. “And even in this case, defendants must be subject to impartial investigations and have the right to appeal the verdict more than once.”

Askar responded by saying that Islamic Law lays down strict guidelines in order to prevent the erroneous execution of innocent parties.

“Islamic Law provides stringent principles for the implementation of the death penalty, the most important of which is a strong base in careful jurisprudence,” he said. “And if there is any doubt about the guilt of the accused, it’s better for a Muslim judge to find one hundred guilty people innocent than to convict a single innocent person.”

A recent conference in Cairo on the subject organised by the state-run National Council for Human Rights, NCHR, highlighted the contentious nature of the issue for many Egyptians. Held on Oct. 21 and 22 under the title “Roundtable on the Principles of Capital Punishment,” participants reportedly discussed international human-rights protocols dealing with the subject.

Days before the roundtable, however, reports appeared in the local press suggesting the event had been organised to discuss the total abolition of the death penalty in Egypt. Some newspapers also reported that Muslim Brotherhood MPs planned to launch a campaign in parliament against the NCHR in response to the council’s purported stand on the issue.

Responding to initial news reports, NCHR Deputy Speaker Ahmed Kamal Aboul-Magd issued a statement on the first day of the conference clarifying the council’s position. In it he stressed that the roundtable was “not organised for the purpose of discussing the total abolition of the death penalty”.

“The council did not suggest, nor is it thinking about suggesting, the total abolition of capital punishment,” Aboul-Magd noted in the statement. He went on to say that neither he nor the NCHR had “any knowledge of a disagreement on the issue with members of parliament”.

Spokesmen for the Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, confirmed the non-existence of the purported conflict. “We didn’t even know they were holding the conference in the first place,” Hamdi Hassan, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood’s bloc in parliament, told IPS.

Although the news reports turned out to be erroneous, Aqeel pointed out that the council’s hasty clarification served to highlight the controversy surrounding the idea of entirely abolishing the death penalty.

“Inaccurate news reports caused a good deal of confusion,” Aqeel said. “But the NCHR statement was largely the result of the fear that anyone working to abolish the death penalty will be seen as standing in opposition to Islamic Law.”

In any case, the council ultimately issued a number of significant recommendations for the future application of capital sentences. The most notable of these proposed the total abolition of capital punishment for “political crimes”.

It also called for the Grand Mufti of the Republic (a state-appointed religious authority) to be granted the final word in capital cases and an end to the practice of trying civilians in military courts where death sentences could potentially be handed down.

Whether or not the government will take up any of these recommendations, though, remains open to question.

“I’m not very hopeful that the council’s proposals will be implemented,” said Aqeel.

Commenting on the effect that a possible U.N. decision on ending the practice might have on Egypt’s capital punishment laws, he said: “I would be more optimistic if the U.N. issued a resolution stipulating the abolition of the death penalty for all but the most extreme crimes.”

Excerpt: