
File Photo: Interior Ministry headquarters (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt's Court of Cassation upheld a final death sentence Saturday handed down to six people for crimes relating to the storming of a police station in Upper Egypt's Minya in 2013.
The court also uphold jail sentences for 59 people, acquitting 47 others in the 2013 case, which included various acts of violence, including murder, as well as setting Matay Police Station on fire.
The sentences are final and cannot be appealed.
In August 2017, Minya Criminal Court handed down 12 death sentences and 119 life terms for crimes relating to the storming of the police station.
The deputy chief of the police station was killed in the violence.
The defendants in the Minya case were initially charged with murder, attempted murder, rioting, illegal assembly, disturbing the public peace, and damaging public and private property.
The incident followed the forced dispersal of mass sit-ins in Cairo's Rabaa El-Adawiya and El-Nahda squares in August 2013 following the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi amid mass protests against Muslim Brotherhood rule.
Following the dispersal, angry rioters stormed police stations and burned a number of churches in various locations across Egypt.
Short link: