Court to retry 36 over post-Rabaa dispersal violence in Minya

Wednesday 11-02-2015 12:43 PM
Court to retry 36 over post-Rabaa dispersal violence in Minya

A woman reacts outside a court in Minya, south of Cairo, after the sentences of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and his supporters were announced, June 21, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

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CAIRO, Feb 11 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's Court of Cassation ordered on Wednesday a retrial for 36 defendants convicted for complicity in the violence in Minya which followed the deadly dispersal of two pro-Mohamed Mursi camps in August 2013.

The Minya criminal court had ratified in June 2014 the death sentences of 183 defendants accused of attacking a police station and killing two policemen in Minya. Among those sentenced in June was Mohamed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide.

Badie is not among the defendants who will be retried, since he was sentenced in absentia.

The mass death sentences have been widely condemned by a number of states, international bodies, and civil society organisations.

After Mursi's ouster, the new regime has rounded up thousands of Brotherhood members and supporters. Hundreds of pro-Mursi protesters were killed in the deadly dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda sit-ins in August 2013.

Egypt listed the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation in December 2013 and insists it is behind the stringent wave of militancy which has targeted security personnel since Mursi's ouster, leaving hundreds of casualties. The Brotherhood continuously denies the accusations.

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