According to the authorities' official version, the six men were arrested on 19 March 2014 by the Security Forces during a raid against a terrorist cell on an abandoned warehouse in Ezbet Arab Sharkas – in the Qalyubia Governorate north of Cairo – during which two officers died. When these events occurred, however, the six men were secretly held 150km east in Ismailia, in Azouli military prison, a detention centre infamous for its systematic practice of torture mostly against political prisoners detained in secret.

The six men had, in fact, been arrested between November 2013 and March 2014 and had been missing since, as attested by the complaints of disappearance filed by some of the victims' relatives before March 2014, to which the authorities never responded and that the military judges never took into account. It is only after the raid that they had been moved to Tora prison – an Egyptian complex for criminal and political detainees located in Southern Cairo – so as to make their detention public.

In addition to these elements, the conduct of their trial before the Supreme Military Court of Egypt was not in line with international fair trial norms. As underlined on numerous occasions by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), civilians should not be tried before military courts as these tribunals are not impartial and independent enough. As a consequence, the judges based their judgements on the sole confessions extracted under the severe torture they suffered at the Azouli military prison, and did not investigate any of the victims' report of torture. Instead, the court sentenced them to death on 21 October 2014. Another accused was sentenced to death in absentia and two others to life in prison. After the Grand Mufti of Egypt had approved their respective sentences and that their appeal was rejected by the Defence Minister, their sentences were carried out on 17 May 2015.

"The news of these six men young men being executed for crimes they have not committed is revolting and shows that the authorities have come to a point of no return where lives of citizens have no value and can be bargained for political motives," said Rachid Mesli, Legal Director at Alkarama. "We are particularly worried over the fates of other Egyptian citizens who have been sentenced to death following unfair trials and whose executions are now enforceable."

Alkarama calls on the authorities to halt the trials of civilians before military court and to guarantee the application of all fair trial norms during courts hearings. Alkarama would also like to recall that the death penalty must not and should not be carried out under any circumstances. In this sense we urge the Egyptian authorities not to implement the death sentences pronounced against former President Morsi and 105 other individuals on 16 May 2015, as well as against the hundreds of other citizens unlawfully sentenced to death following mass trials.

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