Egypt carries out first hanging over pro-Morsi violence

CAIRO, Egypt – Egypt on Saturday, March 7, carried out the first death sentence handed down over the violence that erupted after the army’s 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the interior ministry said.

Mahmoud Ramadan, who was hanged at 7 am (0500 GMT), was the “first to be executed of those involved in violent clashes,” ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been sentenced to death after speedy trials, which the United Nations says is “unprecedented in recent history”.

A court in Egypt’s second city Alexandria had sentenced Ramadan and another Morsi supporter to death in 2014 after convicting them of throwing youths off an apartment block, killing one of them.

They were among dozens of people put on trial over deadly violence in the city’s Sidi Gaber neighbourhood on July 5, 2013, two days after Morsi’s ouster.

The violence came as supporters and opponents of the elected president held rival demonstrations across the city. – Rappler.com