16 people sentenced to 25-7 yrs in prison in retrial of US embassy riots

CAIRO – 20 February 2020: A Cairo Criminal Court, held in Torah district, handed down sentences ranging from 25 years to 7 years in prison to 16 defendants in the second retrial of the case dubbed in the media as the “US Embassy Riots.”

Presided by Judge Moataz Khafagy, the court handed down a life imprisonment sentence to a defendant, 15 years in prison to14 others, and 7 years to a defendant. The court also acquitted a co-defendant.

The convicts were charged with illegal gathering, endangering public peace and security, vandalizing public and private properties, deliberate murder, injuring people, and possessing arms. As per the investigations, the defendants gathered outside the US Embassy in Cairo in November 2012, trying to storm the embassy.

On February 2, 2017, a previous criminal court had sentenced two of the defendants to death by hanging, 20 co-defendants to life sentences [14 in presence and 6 absentia], and a minor to 10 years in jail.

However, the prosecution had accepted the present 16 defendants’ appeals, while six other defendants are still fugitives. The acquitted defendant was granted a presidential pardon.