As presiding judge of a criminal court in the provincial city of Minya on March 24th, Said Yusuf certainly captured attention, and not only of the 529 men he condemned to death. The mass sentence, pronounced after just two brief hearings, prompted an outcry from local and foreign human-rights groups, the Egyptian bar association, Western governments and the un. Protests erupted on streets and campuses across Egypt in sympathy with the condemned men, jointly charged with the murder of a single policeman. The verdict was greeted, at home and abroad, with bafflement as well as outrage.
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