In 2012, a pitch invasion took place at the Port Said stadium, Egypt. The tragedy happened after a football match between the local side al-Masry, who won 3-1 against their long-time rival al-Ahly. The violence is believed to have broken after fans of Cairo’s al-Alhi team started to show banners insulting the local team.
Many of the 72 people who died and 1000 injured crushed ones with the others as they were panicking fans trying to escape from the stadium. Most of the victims died from concussions, cuts and suffocations. Some of them fell or were thrown from terraces, according to witnesses at the game. It was the country’s most violent incident at a football venue.
The resolution of the judge presiding for this case was 15 years in prison for ten men, 10 years for fourteen of them and fifteen received a 5 years sentence. More than 21 people were cleared of charges, including attempted murder and murder.The court decided to sentence 11 men to death for their part in the Port Said stadium disaster, as published in The Independent newspaper.
We can not forget that according to the Human Rights Declaration one of the most fundamental principles is the right to live. I do not agree with death penalty, as even though the crime can be really big, you are not going to get anything killing a person.
In a way, it is better to condemn a person to jail as he or she is going to suffer more spending their life in prison instead just a ‘moment of pain’. People who commit atrocity crimes has to pay for that, but the solution is not killing them. For me a better penalty is condemning them for a while or forever and that way, they would just watching life pass by with the desperation of having no more option, but being there.
It shocks how a country like Egypt, that wants to be more liberal and also be an example for the other Middle Eastern countries, still adopt Death Penalty. The case has highlighted worsening law and order in much of Egypt since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak two years ago.
”The Islamist government of President Mohammed Morsi is struggling to stop the slide in security, hampered by a strike by some police in protests that are likely to be fueled by Saturday’s jail sentences for the senior officers”, as published in an Israeli News source.
I think for this case to death penalty is too harsh, if we compared for example with the Arab Spring, which generated more deaths. There should be no exception in not having death penalty in any country. The human rights debate about how death penalty is still being applied is really complex. As I said before, the main allegation to be against this practice, is that everyone has the right to live, and no one should have the power to decide about the destiny of any person. It can be seen very clear in the example of losing a person because of a crime. It is a tragedy, but you are not going to get back that person killing the guilty one.
