UPDATE: Court upholds sentences in storming Atfih police station case

CAIRO - 27 December 2018: Court of Cassation rejected on Thursday the appeals issued by 35 Muslim Brotherhood members who have been handed imprisonment sentences, over storming Giza's Atfih police station.

The defendants have been handed imprisonment sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years.

Earlier, the public prosecution had referred the defendants to the criminal court for forming a gang and storming Atfih police station in Giza in 2013 following the dispersal of Rabaa el Adwiya and Nahda sit-ins.

The defendants face charges of smuggling prisoners, using violence, attacking public and private properties and committing arson.

They are also charged with attacking police personnel, setting 15 police vehicles ablaze as well as 65 private cars besides stealing weapons from the police station.

Last July, the court sentenced 55 defendants to a 15-year rigorous imprisonment and obliged them to pay a sum of EGP 340,000 as compensation for damage they caused at the police station, in addition to paying EGP 10,000 for two of the victims.

About 31 other defendants were handed down a five-year prison sentence in the same case.