Egypt Sentences 20 to Death Over 2013 Village Massacre

An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced 20 people to death for their part in the August 2013 massacre of more than a dozen policemen in a village west of Cairo.

The latest ruling caps three years of legal proceedings in the case, which in 2015 saw another court sentencing 186 people to death. An appeal against the mass death sentences was accepted last year and a retrial was ordered.

The charges the defendants faced since their trial began in May last year were related to the ransacking of a police station in the village of Kerdassah and the subsequent killing of the policemen.

The assault was believed to be revenge for the deadly breakup by security forces on Aug. 14, 2013 of two sit-in protests in Cairo staged by supporters of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, ousted a month earlier by the military after just one year in office. At least 600 Morsi supporters were killed on that day.

Of the 186 people referred to trial in February 2014, 25 remain at large. Two more died while in detention.

On Sunday, the court sentenced 80 to life imprisonment, 34 to 15 years in prison, and a minor to 10 years. Twenty were acquitted, while four others were referred back to prosecutors.