EGYPT: COURT SENTENCES 11 TO DEATH OVER VIOLENCE

September 9, 2017:

An Egyptian court has sentenced eleven people to death over charges of attempted murder and violence, official news agency MENA reported.
The defendants were convicted of militant gathering for terrorist purposes, making explosives, assaulting a government institution and setting it ablaze, Jeopardizing personal freedoms, harming national unity and social peace, and providing funds and weapons to militants.
The court referred the sentence to Grand Mufti, the country's highest Islamic official who will give the religious judgment of all preliminary death sentences.
The Mufti's opinion is non-binding as it is usually considered a formality, but his final opinion could reduce the penalty.
The court will give its final sentence against other 26 accused with the same charges in October 22.
The case dated back to August 2013 when the Brotherhood members took into streets, broke into some police stations, killing security men in retaliation for the police's harsh crackdown on the supporters of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi who was ousted by the army in response to mass protest against him.