Detained Muslim Brotherhood supporters are seen standing behind bars during their trial in Cairo on Monday. An Egyptian court sentenced 183 supporters of the outlawed group to death on charges of killing 16 police officers, part of a sustained crackdown by authorities on Islamists. (REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
An Egyptian court Monday confirmed death sentences against 183 men convicted of killing 13 policemen. The policemen were killed in an attack on a police station in Kerdasa, a town on the outskirts of Cairo, on Aug. 14, 2013.
The attack took place on the same day that security forces killed hundreds of demonstrators in clashes as they dismantled two massive protest camps in Cairo supporting Mursi.
The court had in December issued a preliminary verdict against 188 defendants in a mass trial, of whom two were acquitted on Monday while one, a minor, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Charges against the remaining two were dropped after the court found that they were dead.
Monday’s verdict, which can be appealed, came after the initial sentences were sent to the grand mufti, the government’s official interpreter of Islamic law, for ratification.
Also on Monday, an appeals court ordered a retrial in a case involving the murder of a police officer during a firefight with radicals in Kerdasa in September 2013 when security forces stormed the town to flush out hard-liners who had taken control of it.
In August 2014, a lower court had confirmed death sentences on 12 of the 23 defendants tried on charges of killing Major General Nabil Faraj.
The court said seven of those sentenced to death, and who are in custody, will be retried along with four of those who were given life. The other convicted men are fugitives.
