Cairo: An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced eight persons to death over charges of breaking into a police station in 2013, the media reported.
The defendants were convicted of assaulting a government institution, setting it ablaze, wounding 19 policemen and civilians, and burning 20 police and three private cars, Xinhua news agency reported.
The court referred the sentence to Grand Mufti, the country’s highest Islamic official who will give the religious judgement of all preliminary death sentences.
The Mufti’s opinion is non-binding as it is usually considered a formality.
The court will give its final sentence against another 60 accused of the same charges in October.
The case dated back to August 2013, when the Brotherhood members broke into some police stations, killing security men in retaliation for the police’s crackdown on the supporters of the Islamist President Mohammad Mursi who was ousted by the army in response to mass protest against him.
Mursi along with prominent figures of his Brotherhood group were sentenced to death over killing protesters, spying for foreign countries amid other charges.
— IANS
