UN Human Rights Chief Condemns Egypt’s Jailing Journalists, Mass Death Sentences

United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Monday that Egypt’s death penalty convictions and mass trials are “obscene and a complete travesty of justice”.

In a statement, Pillay said that Egypt should release three al-Jazeera reporters jailed for seven years earlier in the day after being convicted of helping a “terrorist organisation”, and she accused Egypt of “crushing” the media.

Those verdicts and the death sentences confirmed on Saturday for 183 Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters are the latest in a string of prosecutions “rife with procedural irregularities and in breach of international human rights law”, she said.

Source: Reuters