A man, Mohamed Adel, sentenced to death for the murder of a fellow female student has been executed, authorities in Egypt have said.
The man killed the lady after she rejected his advances in what has now become a disturbing trend of femicide in the North African country.
The incidents sparked outrage with citizens asking the government to act.
Prison authorities “carried out the death sentence issued against Mohamed Adel”, who was found guilty last year of the “premeditated murder” of fellow student Nayera Ashraf, after he confessed to the crime in court.
Adel was sentenced in a highly publicised two-day trial in June last year, after a video went viral appearing to show Ashraf being stabbed outside her university in Mansoura, 150 kilometres (95 miles) north of Cairo.
She had previously reported her fears of attack to the authorities, and prosecutors had said messages from the accused “threatening to cut her throat” were found on her phone.
A plethora of high-profile femicides in Egypt last year elicited pervasive exasperation and fears of copycat crimes.
Murder is a capital offence in Egypt, which carried out the world’s fourth highest number of executions last year, according to Amnesty International.
Patriarchal legislation and conservative interpretations and implementation of Islam have contributed to gravely narrowing women’s rights.
Women say they are target of routine violence with little legal redress.
Nearly eight million Egyptian women were victims of violence committed by their partners or relatives, or by strangers in public spaces, according to a United Nations survey conducted in 2015
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