29 July 2017: a criminal court in Egypt sentenced to death eight defendants in a case related to the deadly protests of 2013 that followed the military-led ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi.
The court issued the sentences and, as a formality, referred them to Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the country’s top theological authority. The Mufti is normally expected to announce his non-binding opinion in cases of capital punishment.
The eight, among 68 defendants in the case, had been charged with roles in killing six officers in a police station in a Cairo suburb on August 14, 2013. The suspected attack came after police violently dispersed a sit-in in support of Morsi. At least 600, all of them supporters of Morsi who demanded his reinstatement, were killed in the police violence. (Sources: presstv.ir, 29/07/2017)