Giza court sentences 183 defendants to death in Kerdasa case

The Giza Criminal Court sentenced 183 defendants to death on Monday on charges stemming from deadly violence that broke out in the Giza town of Kerdasa in August 2013.

On December 2, 2014, the court had referred the sentences — which were originally handed down to all 188 defendants — to be ratified by Egypt’s grand mufti, the country’s chief religious cleric.

The mufti’s ratification is not legally binding.

Of the remaining five defendants, one was sentenced to 10 years in prison, two were acquitted and two had passed away before Monday’s ruling, the state-owned news site EgyNews reported.

On August 14, 2013, the defendants allegedly broke into the Kerdasa police station with firearms, RPG missiles and Molotov cocktails. They then purportedly stole weapons and killed the sheriff, his deputy and 12 others, including officers, soldiers and passersby, whose bodies were then mutilated and paraded through the streets. The accused are all allegedly affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.

The attack occurred on the same day as the brutal dispersals of two pro-Brotherhood sit-ins at Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda Square. The ensuing security crackdown lead to the death of more than 1,000 people, most of them at Rabea al-Adaweya.

In a report published in the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram, the mufti detailed all the evidence against the defendants and concluded it was not enough to definitively prove their guilt on murder charges.

He added that the charges stemmed from a coordinated attack that implicated all the defendants in different ways. Some of the accused committed murder, while other defendants either stole, committed arson or stood guard. Some of the detainees were guilty of blocking the road to prevent victims of the violence from getting help, while others incited violence against the police and the military using mosque speakers, the mufti said.

In September 2013, a security operation to arrest Brotherhood members allegedly implicated in the attack on the police station resulted in the death of Major General Nabil Farag, who was shot dead. Last August, the Giza Criminal Court sentenced 12 defendants to death for killing Farag and for affiliation with a terrorist group. 

Ten other defendants were sentenced to life in prison in the same case.

On Monday, the Court of Cassation accepted the appeal of all 22 defendants charged with Farag’s murder, EgyNews reported.