NIHR continues to Attend Retrial Hearings of Defendants Sentenced to Death after the Cassation Court’s Ruling to overturn the Sentence
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In line with the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s keenness to attend the trial hearings in order to determine the fair due process in accordance with international human rights standards and the relevant national legislation, pursuant to its terms of reference as set forth in its Establishment Law No. (26) of 2014, as amended by the Decree-Law No. (20) of 2016, the NIHR continued to attend all the retrial hearings in the case of the accused of killing a policeman and the attempted murder of other police officers by detonating a bomb in the Deir district, who was sentenced to death, and which was referred after investigation by the Special Investigation Unit to the Attorney-General for reconsideration of the verdict due to the appearance of new documents that were not known at the time of the trial and verdict, namely the reports of the doctors of the Ministry of Interior on the examination of the accused, which were not raised before the Court of Merits of its two degrees upon issuance of the verdict or the Court of Cassation.
The Attorney-General referred the matter to His Excellency the Minister of Justice, who in turn requested a review of the final verdicts against the accused pursuant to the provisions of the Law of the Court of Cassation as an endeavor to meet the requirements of justice calling for the exhaustion of all legal means and to the maximum extent possible to uncover the truth. In October 2018, the Court of Cassation overturned the death sentence, cancelled the verdict of the Court of Appeal and returned the case to the Court of Appeal with a different body. The Supreme Criminal Court of Appeals (Fifth Circuit) was set up to hear the case.
