20 sentenced to death over 2013 Kerdasa massacre

CAIRO – 24 April 2017: Twenty defendants were sentenced to death Monday over the killing of 12 police officers in the Giza town of Kerdasa in August 2013.

Cairo Criminal Court referred the case to the Grand Mufti for consultation, setting July 2 to issue the judgment. In Egypt, death sentences are passed on to the Grand Mufti, who acts as the primary religious advisor to the president, before final sentencing. The Mufti’s opinion is not binding but is traditionally followed by the judiciary.

The defendants are charged with storming a police station in Kerdasa, a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time, dismembering their bodies and killing two passers-by. The case is known as the “Kerdasa massacre” in the Egyptian media.

The incident occurred in the aftermath of the violent dispersal of the Rabaa and El-Nahda sit-ins, staged by the Brotherhood to demand the reinstatement of President Mohamed Morsi amid mass pro- and anti-Brotherhood protests