Death sentence upheld to 8 over storming Helwan police station

CAIRO – 10 October 2017: The Cairo Criminal Court issued on Tuesday a life imprisonment sentences to 50 persons accused of being involved in the incidents of storming the Helwan police station in 2013. Death sentences issued to eight were confirmed after religious advisory.

The preliminary death sentences were referred to Egypt's Grand Mufti for legal advice on July 29. After the Mufti provided his unbinding opinion to the court, confirming the sentence, the defendants appealed it.

The court was set October 10 to issue verdicts regarding the rest of the defendants legally.

The case includes 68 defendants accused of storming and setting ablaze a Helwan police station, causing the death of three police officers and three civilians, and injuring 19 others.

The court has drawn a list of charges against the defendants including: premeditated murder, illegal assembly, destruction of public property, damaging police cars and private vehicles, and possession of live ammunition.

The Helwan police station attack came following the dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins; where the Brotherhood members and sympathizers of former ousted President Mohamed Morsi convened demanding his reinstatement.