Luxor4u

Public lynchings indicate 'death of the state': Egypt justice minister.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky on Sunday slammed the public lynching of two men accused of theft in Egypt's Gharbiya governorate, describing the incident as a sign of "the death of the state."

In statements to the Turkish Anadolu news agency on Sunday, the minister condemned the incident in which village residents applied the 'Haraba penalty' of Islamic law by beating two men accused of theft and hanging them from a tree until they died.

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Spoiler

The 'Haraba' penalty in Islamic Law means the execution or crucifixion of anyone who terrorises or kills others in order to steal from them. According to most Muslim clerics, only the state has the authority to apply the penalty.

"The meting out of rough justice on thugs and outlaws, as well blocking roads and highways by citizens, are signs of the state's death," said Mekky. He added that the use of force was a government prerogative, stressing that if that right is transferred to the citizenry "then the state is dead."

"The government that allows this to happen is an unjust government, because it does not afford citizens with adequate protection," said Mekki.

Angry citizens beat two men accused of abducting two young boys, then stripped them half-naked and hung them from a tree in the village of Sammound in the Gharbiya governorate on Sunday, according to security officials who confirmed that both men had died.

The two men were reportedly dragged in the street and beaten before they were hung from the tree.

The killings come a week after the attorney general's office encouraged civilians to arrest lawbreakers and hand them over to police.

The incident represents one of the most extreme cases of vigilantism in the two years since Egypt's 2011 uprising, which have seen a sharp deterioration of public security. The worsening security, coupled with a police strike, prompted the attorney general's call for citizens' arrests last week.

Similar attacks have happened elsewhere in Egypt, though vigilante killings remain an infrequent phenomenon. Citizens, however, appear to have grown bolder in taking matters into their own hands since the uprising that ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/67110.aspx

At this rate the government will have to hire a horror film director to produce the next "COME TO EGYPT" tourism video

This is worrying. Many Egyptians after seeing this will think it's perfectly ok to do the same thing

But this reaction is understandable. What justice are the common folk receiving? I don't support this kind of vigilante action but I'm surprised its only just starting to appear, as far as we know. Yes it will be damaging for tourism but on that point I think we all should finally agree that its now well into its death knell.

Social order has to be almost nil for this type of reaction to happen. No consideration given to due process. No abiding by known and established legal practice. No parameters of when to stop - as in a good trouncing is one thing but this is well beyond any form of trouncing. And the hanging in the public square - hmmm - that is a different mentality taking over when that type of action is in play. This is power and control stuff OR else.

LovelyLadyLux wrote:Social order has to be almost nil for this type of reaction to happen. No consideration given to due process. No abiding by known and established legal practice. No parameters of when to stop - as in a good trouncing is one thing but this is well beyond any form of trouncing. And the hanging in the public square - hmmm - that is a different mentality taking over when that type of action is in play. This is power and control stuff OR else.

I may be wrong LLL but I think all your valid points have been common practice here for the last few decades with possibly the last one as I think that those concerned preferred to do out of site which tended to localize the example. They now require the message to go global.

Angry mobs attempt 3rd public lynching in Egypt's Gharbiya.

One day after two men charged with kidnapping are killed by local residents, Gharbiya's Mahallah Ziad village comes close to witnessing second example of rough justice on Monday.

In the second such incident in as many days, hundreds of residents of Mahallah Ziad village in Egypt's northern Gharbiya governorate on Monday surrounded a police station in an attempt to capture and publicly execute a man charged with kidnapping a local girl.

The incident comes only one day after two men accused of a similar crime were lynched in the same village.

According to Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website, Central Security Forces were eventually deployed to prevent angry crowds from reaching the accused man, who was being held at the police station following his arrest.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/67185.aspx