Egypt sentences 22 to death for attack on police

An Egyptian court has sentenced 22 men to death for involvement in an attack on a police station in the town of Kerdasa east of Cairo.

The ruling on Monday is the latest in a wave of mass death sentences handed out by Egyptian authorities since the overthrow of former President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

One defendant, a juvenile, was given a 10-year sentence during Monday’s hearing, sources told the Reuters news agency.

A lawyer for the convicted men said they would appeal the verdict. All death sentences handed out in Egypt must be approved by the country’s Grand Mufti for approval before they are enacted.

On Sunday, a judge ordered the execution of 11 men accused of involvement in a football riot in the city of Port Said, which left 72 people dead.

The alleged assault took place on the same day security services began their dispersal of a protest camp in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya square, killing hundreds of supporters of Morsi.

A police general was shot dead, and another nine police officers wounded in an operation in September the same year, to track down those responsible for the attack.

State television claimed dozens of weapons including rocket-propelled grenades were seized in Kerdasa, and police issued 150 arrest warrants for people they say were involved in the attack.

A report by Human Rights Watch published in December 2014 says police had shot at protesters demonstrating against the security services.

The same reports cites witnesses who said an armed group from outside Kerdasa had carried out the attack with the help of some locals.