Egypt sentences 20 to death for 2013 police killings

An Egyptian court has sentenced 20 people to death for the killing of 13 policemen and a civilian in the aftermath of the military coup that ousted President Mohamad Morsi in 2013.

A month after Morsi was overthrown by the army, security forces violently dispersed two pro-democracy protests in Cairo killing around a 1,000 people.

Hours after the massacre, a crowd attacked a police station in the Cairo suburb of Kerdassa. Thirteen policemen were killed in the clashes.

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A Cairo court sentenced 183 to death a year later but a higher court scrapped the verdict last year following an international outcry which called for the retrial of 149 imprisoned suspects.

However 13 of those 149 were sentenced yesterday to death by a Cairo criminal court, a judicial official confirmed, adding that a decision concerning the others would be made at a later hearing in July.

The death sentences issued yesterday will now be submitted to the Grand Mufti for a legal opinion which is not binding.

Since 2013, Egyptian courts have sentenced thousands of pro-democracy supporters to death since the overthrow of the country’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi.