Cairo: Five members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were on Monday sentenced to death for killing 13 people, including 11 policemen, in 2013 after a retrial.
The defendants were accused of attacking the Kerdasa police station on August 14, 2013, the same day when Egyptian security forces dispersed two Brotherhood protest sit-in camps in Cairo and Giza, killing hundreds of people. They were also accused of possessing unlicensed weapons among other charges.
In February, the court sentenced 183 defendants to death in the same case. Thirty-five of them were sentenced in absentia.
Five defendants from those sent in absentia have asked for a retrial. The Egyptian criminal court have confirmed their death sentences. Thousands of pro-Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members have been rounded up and put on trial since the army deposed the Islamist president in 2013 following massive street protests against his rule. In April, an Egyptian criminal court sentenced the ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 12 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders for 20 years in prison for inciting violence near the Ittihadeya presidential palace in 2012.
