30 January 2018: Tayseer Odeh Sulaiman, aged 25, was executed. Sulaiman was sentenced to death in Case No. 99 of 2014 by the Military Criminal Court in Ismailia after the Supreme Military Court of Appeals rejected his appeal without giving any rationale for the rejection. Earlier, the Ismaili Military Prosecutor ordered the referral of the case to the Military Criminal Court, which initiated proceedings without taking into account the guarantees of a fair trial for the accused. Despite the military court’s claim of its independence, impartiality, and basis on the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Egyptian Penal Code, the execution of Sulaiman violated the military code and the guarantees and rules governing legal proceedings in accordance with Egyptian law, according human rights groups.
Sulaiman’s execution comes two weeks after 13 human rights organizations sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights calling on them to intervene immediately to stop the Egyptian government from carrying out 26 death sentences. The letter further called for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to replace the death penalty with another penalty, and for the Egyptian government to voluntarily declare a moratorium on the death penalty in any new cases. This should be done with a view towards abolishing capital punishment in Egypt and reviewing all pending death sentences, to ensure all defendants exercise their right to a free and fair trial. The organizations’ letter was followed by a statement from five UN experts on 26 January 2018 demanding that Egyptian government halt the execution of the 26 people sentenced to death, one of whom was Sulaiman.

Egypt: Rights organizations condemn the escalating execution of civilians after fundamentally flawed trials in military and anti-terrorism courts