An Egyptian criminal court sentenced on Tuesday two people to death and 20 others to life imprisonment over “acts of violence” that took place near the US embassy in Cairo following the 2013 ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi, according judicial source said.
The defendants were convicted on Tuesday of charges including murder, undermining public peace, deliberate sabotage of public buildings, protesting and terrorising citizens, the source added.
Another defendant was handed a 10-year prison term for the same charges, the source added.
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Tuesday’s sentences, however, are “preliminary and subject to appeal before the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appellate court, within 60 days,” the source, preferring anonymity for security reasons, told Anadolu Agency.
The incident dates back to October 2013, when clashes erupted between former president Mohamed Morsi’s supporters and security forces in front of the US embassy, following the dispersal of Rabaa and Nahda square sit-ins.
Under Egyptian law, the cases of those facing the death penalty must be referred to the grand mufti, for his non-binding recommendation to the court on whether to proceed, before they are carried out.
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Ever since Morsi was ousted in a bloody July 3 military coup, Egypt’s post-coup authorities have waged a relentless crackdown on his supporters and members of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, where 15,000 of his supporters were arrested, and hundreds were slapped with death and life imprisonment sentences.
There had been several cases where the Egyptian Court of Cassation overturned dozens of those sentences against Morsi supporters for either a lack of concrete evidences or a legal defect in the procedures.