Kerdasa trial: Court upholds death sentences for 20 Egyptians

A court in Cairo has upheld the death sentences for 20 Egyptians convicted of killing 13 policemen during violent unrest after the military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

“The verdict is final and cannot be appealed,” a judicial official said on Monday.

The case involves 156 defendants, all of whom had received either death or lengthy imprisonment sentences in the first trial on charges of storming Kerdasa police station in Giza, killing 13 police officers, destroying the station and burning a number of police vehicles in August 2013.

The same court on Monday sentenced 80 other defendants to 25-year prison terms, another 34 defendants to 15 years, and a minor to 10 years. Twenty-one defendants were acquitted.

The deadly attack on the police station took place shortly after the dispersal operation in Rabaa al-Adawiya by the armed forces on August 14, 2013, following the overthrow of former President and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi by a military coup.

Earlier this month an Egyptian court upheld death sentences against 75 people in one of the largest mass trials since 2011 people’s uprising forced longtime president Hosni Mubarak to resign.

A year later, former armed forces chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi won the presidency.

Sisi won re-election with 97 percent of the vote in March this year, against a single opponent widely seen as a token challenger.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies