Minya Criminal Court sentenced 12 defendants to death, 140 others to life imprisonment, including 9 in absentia, and two to 10 years for storming the Matay police station and killing Brigadier Mostafa al-Attar in August 2013, during riots that followed the dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adaweya and al-Nahda sit-ins.
The court acquitted 238 other defendants involved in the case.
The court requested the religious opinion of the grand mufti on July 11, for the death sentence issued against 12 of the defendants.
Tight security measures were imposed around the court, as head of Minya Security Directorate Mamdouh Abdel Monsef supervised the transfer of the defendants from Minya Prison to the court.
Minya Criminal Court sentenced 37 defendants to death and 394 others to life in prison on April 28, 2014 in the same case. The defendants challenged the ruling at the Court of Cassation, which ordered their retrial.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
