CAIRO, Sept 22 (Aswat Masriya) – The No to Military Trials for Civilians initiative launched on Thursday a social media campaign for a group of young men sentenced to death in military courts.

“Ten young people, through unfair trials, continuous torture, long periods of enforced disappearances, and unstable movements from prison to prison, were sentenced to death by a military court,” the group said on the official page of a Facebook event, referring to detainees that are between the ages of 19 and 23.

The young men, among others, are involved in two cases that were referred to military court in 2015. There is case 174, also known as the “advanced operations case,” and case 325 popularly known as the “Kafr el-Sheikh stadium case.”

A military court ratified a verdict sentencing eight of the young men involved in case 174 to death late August. In the next two months, an appeal can be filed against the ratification.

"The thing with the military appeals court is that it is never guaranteed to have an approval, unlike the regular appeals court which goes by well-known rules and principles," lawyer Ahmed Helmy previously told Aswat Masriya.

According to the No to Military Trials for Civilians group, all of the young men were subjected to enforced disappearances that lasted for longer than 100 days. All of the defendants were also subjected to varying amounts of torture.

“Some of them had already been forced to wear red suits despite the sentences not having been affirmed, while others were imprisoned in death row before the verdict was even made,” the group added.

Activists shared their photographs carrying “No to Military Trials for Civilians” posters, alongside photographs and stories of the defendants.  The campaign is due to continue until end of October.

In May 2015, six men accused in the famous "Arab Sharkas" case were executed.

"Regulations of death sentences in military courts lack transparency and are clouded," according to the group, which cited the case of Arab Sharkas as an example. 

In this case, "the sentence was carried out without confirming the president’s ratification," and "was seemingly carried out as revenge for a terrorist attack on judges in Sinai," the group said in an April report.

Last June, an Egyptian military court sentenced 187 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters to life in prison over storming a police station in Minya and blocking the railroad after the dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adaweya and Nahda sit-ins in 2013.