A Cairo criminal court issued on Monday a preliminary death sentence to 20 defendents undergoing retrial for involvement in an attack on a Kerdasa police station in August 2013 in which 12 policemen were killed, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported. The criminal court also set 2 July to issue its final verdict for those 20 as well as the rest of the defendants in the trial. The preliminary death sentence is pending the non-binding consultative opinion of the country's grand mufti, per Egypt's penal code. Once the court issues the final verdict in the case, the defendants have the right to appeal the verdict once again. The defendants in the case were found guilty of storming the Kerdasa police station in August, killing and mutilating the bodies of 12 policemen and two civilians who happened to be there, attempting to murder 10 other policemen and destroying the police station. The defendants are also charged with torching several police vehicles and being found in posession of heavy firearms. The attack took place in August 2013 following the forced dispersal of sit-ins in support of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo. In February 2015, a criminal court issued a death sentence to 183 people found guilty of involvement in the attack, 34 of whom had been tried in absentia. Only 149 defendants appealed the court order and are currently undergoing retrial.
