Dictator Egypt court upholds death penalty against 183 protesters

An appellate court in Egypt has upheld death sentences against 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters for their alleged involvement in the killing of 13 policemen.

According to sources on Monday, the court confirmed the earlier verdict of death penalty against the defendants for taking part in a deadly attack on a police station in mid-August 2013.

Back in December 2014, an Egyptian court issued death sentences for 188 anti-government protesters. However, the appeals court acquitted two defendants, handed down a 10-year prison term to a minor and dropped charges against two others after it was found that they had had lost their lives.

The court stated that the accused, of whom 143 are currently in jail, stormed a police station in Kerdasa, a village on the outskirts of the capital city of Cairo, in 2013, killing 13 security forces.

The deadly assault took place after the Egyptian army attacked sit-ins by the supporters of the country’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, in an operation that claimed the lives of over 700 protesters.

The harsh verdict against anti-government protesters came around two months after an Egyptian court dismissed a murder charge against the country’s deposed dictator, Hosni Mubarak, in connection with the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the 2011 uprising that ended his decades-long rule.

The rights groups have severely criticized the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for launching a heavy-handed crackdown on anti-government protesters and stifling freedom of speech in the Arab country.

Rights groups say the crackdown on the supporters of Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested, while hundreds have been sentenced to death in mass trials.

Morsi was ousted in July 2013 in a military coup led by Sisi who was then the army commander.