Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Saturday eight to a preliminary death sentence for acts of violence related to storming Cairo's Helwan Police Station 14 August 2013. The court's preliminary death verdict is scheduled to be referred to the country's Grand Mufti for a consultative non-binding opinion as per Egypt's penal code. The court set 10 October to issue its final verdict on the eight individuals as well as 60 others who partook in the violence. The defendants were charged with throwing rocks, molotov cocktails, torched tires, and gas cylinders at Helwan Police Station as well as firing on police personnel and citizens inside the station. The violence resulted in a number of deaths and injuries as well as completely torching the police station and 20 police cars and three civilian vehicles. Following the dispersal of two major sit-ins supporting ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 14 August 2013, angry rioters stormed police stations and burned a number of churches. Hundreds of people have been convicted in similar cases since 2013.
