Court sentences 183 to death Giza Criminal Court has sentenced 183 out of 188 defendants to death, on charges of storming the Kerdasa police station and murdering at least 11 policemen in August 2013. The court, presided over by Judge Nagi Shehata, sentenced a minor to ten years in prison, acquitted two defendants and dropped charges against two others who had passed away. At least 151 people are still in custody, while the remaining 37 are on the run and were tried in absentia. The Kerdasa incident occurred during a period of intense daily clashes between pro-Muslim Brotherhood people and security forces. Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals overturned verdicts issued against 22 defendants and ordered a retrial on charges related to the killing of Giza Deputy Security Chief Nabil Farag in September 2013. Farag's killing occurred during a security raid launched in Kerdasa following the police station incident and the crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters following former president Mohamed Morsi's ouster. The security operation in the village of Kerdasa, near the Giza Pyramids, was launched in the early hours of 19 September 2013, nearly a month after the dispersal of two Brotherhood sit-ins. The operation was launched to arrest suspects in the police massacre, as Kerdasa had reportedly fallen under the control of alleged armed Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Farag was shot at the beginning of the operation. Police later said the shooting started from inside the village. State-run media reported that 22 policemen died in the attack on the police station, adding that the attackers were heavily armed, possessing rocket-propelled grenades. Policemen were tortured to death and some of the bodies were mutilated. The prosecution said the attackers seized weapons and videotaped the attack, which became known as the “Kerdasa Massacre”, to “humiliate” the police. Videos of the attack on the station and of the bodies of the dead officers were uploaded onto the Internet. Twelve people were sentenced to death in August and ten others to life imprisonment following a final Giza Criminal Court verdict in August. These covered the prosecution's charges of participating in and funding terrorism, forming an illegal group aimed at preventing state institutions from performing their duties, assaulting citizens and instigating terrorist-related violence. Policeman kills hospital patient A policeman on Sunday killed a suspect, in custody while receiving treatment at a hospital, after the suspect allegedly insulted the officer. The detained suspect was said to have threatened the policeman guarding him in Imbaba Hospital in Agouza, insulted him, his family, police, the armed forces, the state and its leaders, and threatened to kill him and mutilate his body. The suspect was also alleged to have said he supported last Thursday's attack by Islamist militants in North Sinai, which killed over 30 people. “The policeman shot the suspect, which resulted in his death,” an Interior Ministry statement said. The ministry announced that the policeman was taken into custody and the prosecution has started an investigation. However, Al-Ahram newspaper reported that a prosecution investigation already in progress has revealed that the policeman took a large amount of money as a bribe from members of a terrorist group in order to kill the suspect before he could reveal information about the group. Egypt, UN discuss stalled talks Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri conferred with UN Middle East Special Envoy Robert Seri in Cairo on Monday. The two discussed the latest developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and ways to break the current impasse and provide a suitable atmosphere for the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. The two officials also talked about ways to stop Israel from building more illegal Jewish settlements, ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti said. Shoukri and Seri also reviewed the humanitarian situation in Gaza, ways to speed up donations pledged by governments and institutions at last year's Gaza international donors conference, and the role of the UN and other international organisations in easing the suffering of the people of Gaza. 30-day Hepatitis C cure Hepatologist Gamal Essmat, a member of the National Committee of Hepatic Viruses, reports that 16,000 hepatitis C patients recovered after four weeks of treatment with the American drug Sovaldi. “The cure rate is 90 per cent, but we aim for 100 per cent,” Essmat said. He added that new drugs, such as Harvoni and Viekira, will help achieve this percentage. Essmat said that with the new drug, patients will not need additional drugs as is the case with Sovaldi, which is taken with Interferon and Ribavirin. He said conditions for distributing Sovaldi have been facilitated. “A patient no longer has to present a liver sample or a scan,” he added. Nearly 180 million people suffer from Virus C, and more than 350,000 people die every year of HCV-related infections, most of them in middle- and low-income nations. In Egypt, 12 million out of the 90 million population are infected with HCV. Each year there are 165,000 new cases in Egypt. The virus kills around 40,000 Egyptians a year. TV terrorism In its attempt to combat terrorism and uproot terrorist groups, Egypt's Foreign Ministry is conducting intense contacts to stop the broadcast of satellite channels that belong to terrorist groups. Some satellite channels that belong to the Muslim Brotherhood have recently aired programmes via European satellites that propagate hatred and clearly call for violence, killing and wiping out legitimate state institutions. Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Ati said that the ministry has recently started consulting with relevant European authorities and institutions to ask them to take the necessary measures to shut down channels that incite hatred, violence and terrorism via European satellites. The foreign minister also contacted Egyptian embassies in the European states concerned for further consultations.
