Rabat – In a bid to deter frequent homicides in Egypt, the Al Mansura Criminal Court called on Sunday for a legal amendment to allow the live broadcast of the execution of the killer of university student Nayera Ashraf.
Earlier this month, an Egyptian court confirmed the death sentence verdict against the defendant, Mohamed Abdel, who had stabbed Ashraf in a busy street in front of Al Mansura University.
A horrifying video showing Abdel stabbing Ashraf in broad daylight in front of passersby was widely circulated across the internet.
The video triggered outrage among the community of Al Mansoura city, as well as the rest of Egypt and the Arab world, with many calling for the harshest sentence and stricter laws to protect women against violence.
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Abdel pleaded guilty and admitted to stabbing the victim several times on her neck and chest. He confessed to killing Ashraf due to disputes after she had rejected his marriage proposal.
According to local media, the court sent a letter to the parliament, arguing that “the broadcast [of the execution], even of a part of the start of proceedings, could achieve the goal of deterrence, which was not achieved by broadcasting the sentencing itself.”
Egypt recorded the third-highest number of executions worldwide in 2021, with at least 356 death sentences, according to Amnesty International.
The executions, however, are rarely broadcast live or performed in public. In 1998, the execution of three men who had murdered a woman and her two children in Cairo was broadcast on state television.
A 2015 United Nations survey indicated that approximately eight million Egyptian women were victims of violence from their partners, family members, or strangers in public places.
