Egypt rejects UN criticism of trials for hanged convicts

FILE -- In this June 29, 2015 file photo, Egyptian policemen stand guard at the site of a bombing that killed Egypt's top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, who oversaw cases against thousands of Islamists, in Cairo. On Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019 Egypt executed nine suspected Muslim Brotherhood members convicted of involvement in the 2015 assassination of Barakat, security officials said. The nine were found guilty of taking part in the bombing that killed Barakat, the first assassination of a senior official in Egypt in a quarter century. (AP Photo/Eman Helal, File)

CAIRO – Egypt has rejected criticism from a U.N. human rights body about a recent spike in executions allegedly involving confessions made under torture, saying Cairo categorically rejects any infringement into the affairs of its judiciary.

In a Sunday statement, the foreign affairs ministry said the nine death sentences carried out Wednesday of alleged Islamists followed "fair and transparent trials." The nine were found guilty of taking part in a 2015 bombing that killed the country's top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat.

U.N. Human Rights Office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters Friday that Egyptian authorities should take all measures needed to guarantee due process and investigate allegations of torture. Colville said that judges had ignored accounts of torture to extract confessions.

A total of 15 people have been executed in Egypt this year.