CAIRO
An Egyptian court on Sunday slapped one person with a 10-year jail term while acquitting five others of responsibility for the death of dozens of football fans in the canal city of Port Said in 2012.
In a televised trial session, the court also ruled that a death sentence handed down against another defendant – who was tried in absentia – still stood, due to his failure to attend the retrial.
The seven defendants are among 73 people being tried in connection with the killing in 2012 of 72 football fans following a heated match between Cairo’s Al-Ahly club and local team Al-Masry.
In June, an Egyptian court sentenced 11 people to death in connection with the killings.
The seven defendants sentenced on Sunday had originally been tried in absentia. Following their subsequent arrest, the court ordered them to be retried in line with Egyptian legal procedure.
The 2012 football violence sent shockwaves across the country and embarrassed Egypt’s then-ruling Supreme Military Council, which had assumed executive authority after autocratic President Hosni Mubarak stepped down one year earlier.
