Amnesty International Spain started campaigning on Thursday for the release of eight young men who were previously sentenced to death by a military court in late May.
AI launched a petition expressing its concerns over the defendants being tried before a military court even though they are civilians and the mystery behind their arrest and enforced disappearance.
AI claimed that there was evidence that the group had been tortured so that they would confess to belonging to a terrorist cell and committing acts of terrorism.
The petition, meanwhile, referred to a previous incident of executing six civilians by a military court in 2015, also on charges of forming a terrorist cell called Arab Sharkas. “We are concerned and we do not want this to be repeated again,” the petition read.
The West Cairo Military Court upheld death sentences for the eight civilians in late May after several postponements to consult the Grand Mufti on their execution.
Some of the defendants in the case were considered by rights groups and activists as having been “forcibly disappeared” before being shown in a video, released by the Ministry of Defence in July 2015, confessing to being members of a terrorist network and claiming responsibility for attacks on state facilities and personnel.
