Death sentence upheld for six MB members over 2013 violence

CAIRO – 28 April 2018: The Court of Cassation upheld Saturday the death penalty against six people in connection with violence that erupted in Upper Egypt’s Minya Governorate following the ouster of former Muslim Brotherhood (MB) president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The court, acting as Egypt’s highest appellate court, confirmed the sentence as punishment for storming a police station in Minya, killing a security official and having connections with the outlawed MB.

Moreover, the court commuted the death sentences of three other defendants to life in prison and confirmed life sentences against 59 defendants, while acquitting 47 other defendants.

The verdicts are final and cannot be appealed against.

In Apr. 2014, a verdict was issued in case no. 8473/2013, known as the “Matai Police Station storming” case, as a judge in the southern governorate of Minya condemned supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who were involved in the case to death.

The defendants faced a set of charges that include the killing of a colonel, the attempt murder of two other police officers, burning down a police station, seizing weapons and destroying property, as well as being members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

Violence erupted in Egypt in 2013 after security forces broke up two intemperate sit-ins of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo; the province of Minya, around 150 miles from the Egyptian capital, witnessed a three-day clash as a mob of angry Morsi supporters stormed a police station in Matai.