The court of Cassation accepted the appeal of 545 defendants in Minya governorate under sentence of death and decided to retry them before the criminal court. In April 2014, Minya criminal court sentenced 37 defendants to death, another 429 to life in jail and referred 683 to the Mufti, the Islamic official who must approve the death sentence. The defendants are accused of killing a police officer and setting fire to Matay police station in Minya governorate, in Upper Egypt, following the dispersal of the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins in August 2013, organized by pro-Morsi protestors in the Cairo and Giza governorates. Egyptian courts issued several death and life imprisonment sentences against former president Mohamed Morsi's supporters, in the wake of his removal in July 2013.