CAIRO, Nov. 7 (Aswat Masriya) - A Giza criminal court Saturday confirmed in a retrial a life imprisonment sentence handed down to Ahmed Hassan for torching a church, among other charges, in Giza's Kerdasa neighbourhood.  

Hassan was also fined EGP 20,000 (around $2,491).

In April Hassan was handed an initial life sentence, alongside 70 other defendants who all received the same verdict, 52 of whom were sentenced in absentia, while two minors were sentenced to 10 years each. The trial had seen all 73 defendants convicted.

They were also accused of joining an illegal group, possession of firearms and unlicensed ammunition, attempted murder, torching a religious facility, stalling traffic and resisting authorities.

At the time of the initial ruling, however, Hassan was still at large and so was sentenced in absentia.

Egyptian law provides retrial for a person sentenced in absentia once he or she is arrested.

The violence in Kerdasa, a town 14 km from central Cairo, came in retaliation for the  violent dispersal of two sit-ins against the military ouster of former President Mohamed Mursi on August 14, 2013, when hundreds of peaceful protesters were killed.

The torching of the church coincided with an attack on a police station in Kerdasa killing 11 policemen and with other acts of violence across the country, including in Upper Egypt's Minya province where churches were also damaged.