The Giza Criminal Court referred the papers of seven detainees to the Grand Mufti, the country's highest official interpreter of Islamic law, in the retrial of the case of Nabil Farrag's murder on Saturday. The Grand Mufti will review the death sentences. The remaining six defendants will receive their verdict on 24 September, along with the final say of the Grand Mufti. The defendants were charged with deliberately killing Giza security chief Nabil Farrag and attempting murder of officers and army forces at a security raid in Giza's Kerdasa village in 2013. The prosecution further accused the defendants of illegal possession of firearms and explosives and of forming an illegal group. In August 2014, the Giza Criminal Court sentenced 12 out of 23 case defendants to death, 10 to life imprisonment, and had acquitted one defendant. Thirteen defendants had filed an appeal to the Court of Cassation against the verdict of the Giza Criminal Court.Major General Nabil Farrag died on duty in September 2013 when orders were given to storm Kerdasa, as the defendants had allegedly taken over the area a month after the dispersal of Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda sit-ins. Farrag died instantly after a bullet penetrated his chest during an exchange of fires with militants in the area.
