20 people sentenced to death for killing 14 Police Officers

An Egyptian court on Monday handed down preliminary death sentences to 20 on charges of storming a police station and murdering 14 officers in Kerdasa on the western outskirts of Cairo.

The 20 are part of a total of 156 who are facing retrial for the August 2013 attacks that took place following the army’s removal of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Monday’s sentences are being referred to the chief Islamic legal authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion, as required by Egyptian law.

According to Judge Mohamed Fahmy, a final verdict on all defendants is scheduled for June 2.

The attack on Kerdasa police station took place after the police and army broke up two Islamist sit-ins in Cairo.

According to rights groups, hundreds were killed in the operation.

Supporters of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Morsi, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, had camped out at two sites in Cairo for six weeks.

The protest was mounted after then army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi deposed Morsi in the wake of mass protests calling for the president to resign.