Local and international human rights organizations strongly denounced the recent death sentencing of three men convicted of playing a role in the terrorist attacks in the Sinai resort town of Taba in October 2004. Monitors from the international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the trial of the three men unfair; citing several allegations of torture and forced confessions, incommunicado detention and lack of consultation with counsel. "The defendants' allegations . raise serious doubts about the fairness of this trial. Particularly since the defendants face execution, President Mubarak should order a new trial that will respect due process, Sarah Leah Whitson., Director of HRW s Middle East and North Africa Division, said in a press release issued by the organization yesterday. According to HRW, a state security court in Ismailia sentenced Yunis Muhammad Mahmoud to death for terrorism and murder on November 30. The court also sentenced Osama Muhammad Abdel Ghani Al-Nakhlawi and Muhammad Jayiz Sabbah Hussein to death for terrorism, being an accessory to a murder, and belonging to a terrorist group and other crimes related to the Taba attacks. The men were sentenced under emergency law, which makes it impossible for them to appeal in the case. The decision of calling for a retrial or changing the verdicts is now up to President Mubarak, Hossam Baghat, Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told The Daily Star Egypt. HRW representatives argue that Egypt's emergency law allows for "prolonged incommunicado detention, in contravention of international legal standards on the right to a fair trial and to adequate representation by a lawyer . "By allowing security services to hide suspects from the world for months at a time, the emergency law makes it easy for investigators to mistreat them with impunity. By the time the detainees see the light of day, it's difficult to prove whether their allegations about being tortured into confessing are true, Whitson stressed. According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and INTERLIGHTS, a British human rights organization, The African Commission on Human and People s Rights has reportedly requested the Egyptian government to stall the execution of the three men. This was a grossly unfair trial that violated international law standards on due process. We will continue our campaign until the defendants receive a new and fair trial, said Baghat. Eleven people were killed and more than a hundred were wounded in the incident known as the Taba bombings', which destroyed a wing of the Taba Hilton hotel in October 2004.
