Even the dead are sentenced to death in Egypt - Surprised?

Doctor Badawi was killed on August 14, but he was among 37 people whose death sentences were confirmed on Monday by an Egyptian court which sentenced another 683 to the gallows.

His case is not unique -- lawyers said two other defendants sentenced to death by the court in the central city of Minya for demonstrating in support of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi were already dead on the day of the protest last year.

It is an extreme example of what the international community has described as the judicial farce of mass trials lasting just two brief sessions and resulting in death sentences for hundreds of defendants, most of them not even in custody.

Monday's hearing lasted just 10 minutes, said defence lawyer Khaled Elkomy. None of the defendants were brought to court for the session.

Several female relatives of the accused fainted outside the court on hearing of the death sentences handed down by judge Said Youssef Sabry.

Sabry sentenced 683 alleged Islamists, including the leader of the banned Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie, to death after convicting them of the murder and attempted murder of several policemen on August 14.

He commuted to life imprisonment 492 death sentences he handed down after a similar rushed mass trial last month but upheld 37 others.

"Among them is Doctor Badawi, who was shot and killed on the day of the incidents which the defendants are accused of," said Samia Abu Amr, as she held a crumpled sheet of paper listing the names of the 37.

New Vision: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/655009-even-the-dead-are-sentenced-to-death-in-egypt.html