Giza court sentences one to death, refers three to Grand Mufti

Ahram Online , Monday 9 Nov 2015

The man is accused of storming a police station and killing 11 policemen in the town of Kerdasa

Kerdasa
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)

An Egyptian criminal court sentenced a man to death on Monday in his retrial for the case known to the media as the “Kerdasa police station storming.”

The man, named Amr Salah Al-Fakharany, was among five others who were sentenced to death in May for storming a police station and killing 11 policemen in Giza's town of Kerdasa in 2013. Egypt’s Court of Cassation in October overturned the convictions of the defendants and ordered a retrial.

The attack on the Kerdasa police station took place in August 2013, shortly after the dispersal of two large sit-ins in Cairo supporting ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. A total of 183 defendants were originally sentenced to death in February by a Giza criminal court. Thirty-four of those were sentenced in absentia.

On Monday, preliminary death sentences were handed to three defendants in absentia after being found guilty of joining a terrorist organisation, among other charges. The defendants’ case was referred to Egypt’s Grand Mufti, a senior Muslim cleric, for a consultative review as required by Egyptian law.

Although the grand mufti's opinion is non-binding on the court, Egyptian judges have traditionally adjusted their final rulings in accordance with the mufti's recommendations.

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