Capital crimes are: aggravated murder, arson, rape,...

Capital crimes are: aggravated murder, arson, rape, hijacking, espionage, drug trafficking political and military offenses. A male who kidnaps a female and rapes her is liable to receive the death sentence under Art. 291 of the Penal Code; however, there were no reports of the execution of rapists.
In 1999 the Government abolished an article of the Penal Code that permitted a rapist to be absolved of criminal charges if he married his victim. However, marital rape is not illegal.
State of emergency laws, imposed in 1981 after militant army officers assassinated President Anwar Sadat, allow the government to try a militant in a military court without the right of appeal. Military and state security courts in Egypt have sentenced more than 90 people to death since militant groups like al-Gama'a al-Islamiya took up arms against the state in 1992. Approximately 70 have been executed. About 1,200 people, mostly militants and police, were killed in the struggle for a purist Islamic state, but the violence has virtually stopped since the 1997 Luxor massacre of 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians by Gama'a gunmen.