File Photo: A view shows a damaged police station burnt in a blaze by supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi in Kerdasa, a town 14 km (9 miles) from Cairo in this September 19, 2013 (Photo: Reuters)
Twenty-two people were sentenced to death on Monday for attacking a police station and killing a policeman in the village of Kerdasa, on the outskirts of Cairo.
The attack happened on 3 July 2013, the same day as the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The Giza Criminal Court, headed by Judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata, condemned 22 to death in the case, including eight in absentia. One defendant, a juvenile, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The defendants were charged with vandalism, killing policeman Hani Ibrahim Abd El-Latif of the Kerdasa police station, using force against policemen, and illegally possessing weapons and ammunition.
Shehata has become infamous for issuing mass death sentences and long jail terms against alleged Islamists and pro-January 25 revolution activists.
This is the third case so far involving the village of Kerdasa since Morsi's ouster.
In February, the same court, also headed by Shehata, ordered the death sentence of 183 defendants who were accused of killing 11 police officers during an attack on the Kerdasa police station in August 2013, following the deadly dispersal in of large pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo.
Last August, the same court sentenced 12 defendants to death and another 10 to life in prison on charges of killing police general Nabil Farrag and injuring nine other policemen during a security raid on the village of Kerdasa in September 2013 to apprehend those wanted in relation with the August attack on the police station.
This February, the Court of Cassation accepted the appeal of all 22 defendants, and ordered the retrial of seven of those who had received the death penalty.
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