Head of the Fifth Terrorism Circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court
Background
Judge Mohammed Saeed el-Sherbiny graduated with a Bachelor of Law from Mansoura University in Egypt's Delta. His most famous decisions as Head of Port Said Criminal Court and as Head of Fifth Terrorism Circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court were those imposing death sentences on eleven defendants in the case of Port Said Stadium Massacre in June 2015, seven defendants in the case of Helwan Microbus in November 2019 and two defendants in the case of Mar Mina Church in May 2019.
El-Sherbiny repeatedly extended the pretrial detentions of political detainees Haitham Mohamedain and Khaled Dawoud, even though no evidence was presented to establish any of the statutory conditions for pre-trial detention, as stipulated in Article 134 of Egypt's Code of Criminal Procedure. El-Sherbiny ordered these detainees to remain in pretrial detention without providing reasons for his decision, as required by Egyptian domestic law and international standards of due process.
In the case of Mohamedain, el-Sherbiny extended his pre-trial detention on July 25, 2020, without giving him a chance to be present and make arguments, in violation of Articles 143 of Egypt's Code of Criminal Procedure and international human rights law.
See the Haitham Mohamedain and Khaled Dawoud cases.
DAWN requested a response from Judge el-Sherbini by writing to the Egyptian authorities, but has not received a response as of publication.
