Rights group faults Egypt for listing 1,500 on terror list

CAIRO – An international rights group says an Egyptian court’s decision to place more than 1,500 citizens on a terrorism watch list without trial or even prior notification is a “mockery of due process.”

Last week a court drew up the list of 1,538 names, including a soccer star, businessmen and journalists, accusing them of providing financial or logistical aid to the Muslim Brotherhood, which won a series of elections after Egypt’s 2011 uprising but is now branded a terrorist group.

Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday that “dumping hundreds of people onto a list of alleged terrorists, with serious ramifications for their freedom and livelihood, and without even telling them, makes a mockery of due process.”