Court sentences 7 to hang for shooting officer in 2013

pulse

September 24, 2016 4:45 PM

Morsi's ouster, after a year in power, unleashed a crackdown on his supporters that saw hundreds killed and thousands detained.

Policemen in court during the trial of 23 people charged over the September killing of police general Nabil Farrag in Kerdassa, considered to be a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold, in Cairo, on June 18, 2014

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced seven men to hang for killing a police general in the unrest following the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

It was the defendants' second trial, after having won an appeal against an initial sentencing. They can appeal one last time.

General Nabil Farag was shot dead in September 2013 when police raided the village of Kerdassa near Cairo where Morsi's supporters had holed up more than two months after his overthrow.

Farag died from a single 9mm bullet to the chest.

The Cairo court sentenced five other defendants to 10 years in prison and acquitted another one.

On August 14, 2013, police killed hundreds of Islamists while dispersing two protest camps in Cairo.

Mobs retaliated by attacking policemen and Christian properties. More than 10 policemen were killed in Kerdassa.

Courts have since sentenced hundreds to death over the violence, but many, including the now-detained Morsi, have won retrials.

Seven death sentences have been carried out, including for six men convicted of carrying out attacks for an Al-Qaeda-inspired militant organisation that later pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

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