A Cairo criminal court on Sunday sentenced 20 defendants to death for their involvement in an attack on Kerdasa police station in August 2013 in which 12 policemen were killed, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported. The court also handed life sentences to 80 defendants, 15-year terms to 35 defendants, and acquitted another 21. The convicted have the right to appeal the verdict before the Court of Cassation. In April, the court issued a preliminary death sentence to the 20 defendants pending the non-binding consultative opinion of the country's grand mufti, per Egypt's penal code. The grand mufti concurred with the court's decision to sentence the 20 convicted to death. Prosecutors charged the defendants with storming the Kerdasa police station in Giza on 14 August 2013, killing 12 policemen and two civilians and mutilating their bodies, attempting to murder 10 other policemen and destroying the police station. The defendants were also charged with torching several police vehicles and being in possession of heavy firearms during the attack. The attack on the station followed the forced dispersal of sit-ins in support of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo in August 2013.
