Families of defendants sentenced to death in the Port Said football massacre case stormed the area of the Port Said prison where their sons are incarcerated, in protest of the ruling pronounced by a Cairo court on Saturday morning. A Cairo court had sentenced to death 21 of the defendants in the case where 72 Ahly football fans were killed in the aftermath of a match with Port Said's Masry club in February 2012. The ruling for the rest of the 75 defendants is set for 9 March. Police intervened to disperse the families of the defendants as well ultras of the Masry club who congregated around the prison in Port Said. They threw tear gas canisters at the families. Families heard rumors that their sons were being taken away from the prison, but Ibrahim Soliman, the head of the Port Said prison, tranquilized the them and told them that there is no intention to transfer them. Other defendants' families and ultras blocked the main Mohamed Ali Street leading to the premises of the Port Said governorate, while another group blocked the gates of a major textile industrial complex that employs some 20 thousand workers. In a contrasting scene, the Ahly ultras erupted in cheers near the club in Cairo, following the verdict. Similarly, families of those killed in the massacre expressed their happiness with the ruling. "I only got my son's rights today," said the mother of Islam Mohamed, who was killed last February. The mother who accompanied the Ahly ultras in their gathering in Cairo ahead of the verdict, thanked the group for their support. "If it wasn't for the ultras, we wouldn't get that ruling." "Today, the families of the martyrs can sleep comfortably," said the mother of the deceased Hamou Taha. "Today is the wedding of my son." However, some of the Ahly Ultras were not as excited. They said that the verdict was just an attempt to calm down the situation after a wave of violence directed at the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood was witnessed with the second anniversary of the 25 January revolution. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm.
