[JURIST] Egyptian authorities on Sunday executed six men convicted by a military court of killing two Egyptian soldiers. The men were convicted of killing the soldiers after an hour-long gunfight outside a bomb factory in Cairo. The men were also convicted of belonging to Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which is said to have pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State group. Amnesty International [AI report] and Human Rights Watch [HRW report] had called for a retrial for at least half of the men, claiming they were held in secret at the time the crime was committed and therefore could not be responsible for the attack. The scattered attacks have caused a great deal of uproar in Egypt and have led to questionable convictions and executions. Just after the ex-president’s death sentence on Saturday, three judges were gunned down. Officials also stated that Saturday a bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the southern city of Assiut, injuring a police officer.

On Saturday an Egyptian court sentenced [JURIST report] ex-president Mohammed Morsi and more than 100 others to death for their involvement in a mass prison break in 2011. In February an Egyptian court put Morsi on trial [JURIST report] over accusations of spying and leaking information to Qatar. Earlier in February an Egyptian court ordered the release [JURIST report] on bail of two Al Jazeera journalists being retried on terror charges. Baher Mohammed and Mohammed Fahmy had spent more than 400 days in jail after a court found them guilty for falsifying news reports and associating with the Muslim Brotherhood. Also that month a court in Egypt confirmed death sentences [JURIST report] for 183 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted president Morsi. In October an Egyptian court jailed eight men [JURIST report], including two Muslim Brotherhood leaders, for 15 years over the torture of a lawyer during 2011 uprisings against former president Hosni Mubarak. In June a group of UN human rights experts expressed their anger [JURIST report] after an Egyptian court confirmed the death sentences of 183 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.