An Egyptian criminal court on Monday sentenced 22 people to death after convicting them of storming a police station outside Cairo and killing an officer on July 3, 2013.
The ruling was the latest action against alleged supporters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsy, whose Muslim Brotherhood group has faced a violent government crackdown after his one-year rule ended and it was banned and declared a terrorist organisation.
The Giza court said eight of the condemned were sentenced in absentia on charges that included murder, attempted murder, possession of unlicensed firearms, destruction of property and vandalism. The ruling, which can be appealed, also sentenced a minor involved in the case to 10 years.
ADVERTISEMENT
The attack took place in Kerdasa, a restive town west of Cairo considered a militant stronghold and where gunmen and rampaging crowds have killed policemen in other acts of violence. In the largest incident, 11 policemen were killed and their bodies mutilated in August 2013. That September, gunmen killed a police general during a raid.