A Giza court sentenced five people to death on Monday over complicity in violence in the town of Kerdasa in 2013.
The defendants are charged with partaking in violence that led to the killing of 11 policemen, whose bodies were afterwards mutilated and two passersby. They also face charges of attempted murder of others, use of violence, possession of arms, assembly and vandalism.
They were previously sentenced to death in a trial that saw death sentences handed to 183 people, 149 of whom were in custody at the time.
However, these five defendants were handed the verdict in absentia. Once arrested, their trial procedures were restarted after they requested a retrial.
The court's decision today comes after consultation with the Grand Mufti. Asking the Grand Mufti to review death sentences and provide an opinion on them prior to sentencing is a procedural step adopted in all cases which involve death sentences.
The Mufti's rulings are not binding, yet it is customary for the court to adopt them.
The violence in Kerdasa came shortly after police forces forcibly dispersed two sit-ins in support of former President Mohamed Mursi on August 14, 2013, causing the death of hundreds of protesters in what was described by Human Rights Watch as "the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history."
