Mohamed Adel

EGYPTIAN COURT WANTS KILLER EXECUTED ON LIVE TV

August 1, 2022:

An Egyptian court has called for the execution of a young man to be broadcast live. The condemned was convicting of stabbing his classmate at Mansoura University to death.
In a July 24 letter to the Egyptian Parliament, the Mansoura criminal court requested a legal amendment be made to allow the execution to be aired live on television.
“A broadcast, even if only a part of the start of the proceedings, could achieve the goal of deterrence, which was not achieved by broadcasting the sentencing itself,” the letter read.
On June 20, chilling video footage showed Mohamed Adel kill Naira Ashraf at their university campus. According to local reports, she had been about to sit for final exams when he stabbed her several times in front of onlookers. The crime shocked Egypt.
The court’s request was met with mixed reactions in Egypt. Some observers have expressed support of the idea to air the execution in the name of retribution and others argue that it would only spread violence in the community.
Ahmed Shawki Abu Khatwa, a professor of criminal law and former dean of the Faculty of Law at Mansoura University, told Al-Monitor, “The court requested the legislature to introduce an amendment to the penal code to allow the broadcasting of the death penalty. It is imperative to have a legal text to allow this.”
He added, “In my opinion, this is not a very pleasant thing to do. Never has a death sentence been carried out in public in modern Egypt since the law of 1937," meaning Egypt's penal code. "I don’t believe that telecasting the execution will deter others but rather leave the public numb to the sight of violence and entrench the idea of revenge. This is not the desired effect that the court wants to achieve.”
Abu Khatwa said that he does not believe parliament will respond to the court’s request, explaining, “It is true that the convict committed a heinous crime, but he will pay his debt to the community by being punished. In this sense, all his rights should be preserved, including "the implementation of the sentence in accordance with the legal procedures.”