Egypt Sentences 183 People to Death for Deadly Police Station Siege
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Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images(CAIRO) — In yet another effort by the Egyptian government to crush the country’s main Islamist political group, a judge Monday sentenced more than 180 people to death for a deadly attack on a police station in August 2013.
The incident occurred in the village of Kerdassah, near Cairo a month after President Mohammed Morsi was removed from power in a military coup. Fifteen police officers died in the siege that prosecutors alleged was conducted by supporters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party.
Since that time, Egypt’s government has systematically marginalized the Brotherhood, labeling it a terrorist organization and arresting its members while also restricting the rights of Egyptians to hold public protests.
Morsi himself remains in prison and is scheduled for trial later in February on a number of charges that could also bring the death penalty.
As in the case of other mass verdicts, Monday’s sentencing was condemned by Islamists and human rights activists.
Last year, Egypt’s courts sentenced over 1,000 people to death in two separate cases although most of the sentences were overturned.
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