A group of five UN Human Right’s experts on Friday asked [press release] Egypt to halt all pending executions following repeated allegations of unfair trials.

The experts are concerned with a “continuing pattern of death sentences handed out on the basis of evidence obtained through torture or ill treatment, often during a period of enforced disappearance.”

This is not the first time human right’s groups have addressed Egypt’s unfair convictions. In June Amnesty International [official website] called for [press release] authorities to “immediately stop the imminent executions of seven men sentenced to death in two grossly unfair trials,” citing that at least six men were tortured in an effort to obtain “confessions.”

While there are no official figures, Cornell Law School reports [text] that there are at least 1,700 people under a sentence of death, and that 16 executions were committed in 2017.

The group asks that the authorities “ensure that all death sentences are reviewed and, where convictions were based on unfair trials, ensure that individuals have retrials during which Egypt’s human rights obligations are fully respected.”

The experts consisted of José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez, Agnes Callamard, Bernard Duhaime, Nils Melzer, and Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, who report to the Council on arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and the protection of human rights while countering terrorism.