In a lightning-fast trial, the same Egyptian judge who originally sentenced 528 Egyptians to death ordered 683 more to be executed – including the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This new verdict is the largest single batch of simultaneous death sentences Amnesty has recently seen anywhere in the world.

[pullquote text=”The speed and scale of Egypt’s back-to-back mass convictions underscores how arbitrary the Egyptian judicial system has become.”]The latest mass sentence comes just days after the Obama Administration approved the delivery of 10 Apache helicopters to Egypt, despite the Egyptian government’s terrible human rights record. In 2013, Amnesty International documented the use of attack helicopters by Egyptian security forces for surveillance against crowds and protesters. Thousands of people have since been arrested by the government.

The speed and scale of Egypt’s back-to-back mass convictions underscores how arbitrary the Egyptian judicial system has become following the military-led government’s crackdown on political dissent. The sentences target many accused of supporting former President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is worth noting that the military-led government’s tactics are affecting Egyptian activists of many political stripes. On the road to repression, the new government is repeating the old patterns of muzzling civil society that marked three decades of Mubarak rule.

The judge who ruled on the latest case also reconfirmed death sentences for 37 people in the previous mass sentence involving 528 Egyptians. He imposed terms of life in prison for the 491 other individuals.

This is a human rights debacle – repression on an industrial scale. In both sets of trials, many defendants were tried in absentia with no witnesses called and no review of the evidence. But despite this, the Obama Administration is still putting dangerous arms in the hands of the Egyptian government.

Please take action and urge Egyptian Authorities to overturn the mass sentence and order fair retrials.

Your support will help our team:

• Mobilize our movement of more than 3 million members and supporters around the world to take action against these mass death sentences.
• Work with allies in Egypt to pressure authorities to stop this human rights catastrophe.
• Hold the U.S. government accountable for putting weapons in the hands of Egypt’s human rights violators.
• Ensure that media around the world cover these developments and shine a light on Egypt’s violations of human rights.

Help us pressure Egyptian authorities to drop the sentences. We must ensure they are aware of condemnation from around the world. Take action now.