A Cairo criminal court has sentenced eight men to a death for acts of violence related to the storming of Helwan Police Station on 14 August 2013. In Tuesday's sentencing, another 50 defendants were handed life sentences, seven given 10 years in prison and three defendants handed five years, all in the same case. The death sentences follow a criminal court ruling in July to refer the preliminary death sentences to the country's grand mufti for a consultative non-binding opinion, as per Egypt's penal code. The verdicts can be appealed before the Court of Cassation within 60 days, with the court empowered to order a retrial. The men were convicted of committing acts of terrorism, murder, illegal assembly, destroying public buildings and property, and possessing automatic weapons. They were involved in throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails, burning tyres and gas cylinders at Helwan Police Station, as well as shooting at police personnel and citizens inside the station. The violence resulted the deaths of three policemen and three civilians, as well as the burning of the police station, 20 police cars and three civilian vehicles, according to the prosecution. Following the deadly dispersal of the pro-Morsi sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda squares on 14 August 2013, there was a wave of attacks by Morsi supporters on churches and police stations around Egypt. Thousands of people stood trial in cases related to these events, and hundreds were convicted.
