CAIRO
An Egyptian court on Monday condemned 22 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi to death for storming a police station and killing an officer.
The Giza Criminal Court on Monday sentenced 22 Morsi supporters to death – and one minor to ten years in prison – on charges of storming a police station in Kerdasa, a town in Giza province, and killing a policeman in mid-2013 following Morsi's ouster by the military.
Monday's preliminary court verdict is subject to appeal.
Last month, the court referred the 22 defendants to the country's mufti to consider possible death sentences.
The mufti's opinion is not binding on the court. But Egyptian law makes it necessary for judges to seek a religious point of view on all possible death sentences.
The case involves 23 defendants, 15 of whom are incarcerated. The remaining eight are in hiding.
The 2013 attack on the Kerdasa police station came shortly after Egyptian security forces violently dispersed two major sit-ins staged by Morsi supporters in Cairo, killing hundreds of protesters in the process.
Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, was ousted by the army in mid-2013 – and later imprisoned on a raft of criminal charges – following opposition protests against his presidency.
In late 2013, the government designated Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group a "terrorist organization."
The Brotherhood, for its part, says it is committed to peaceful opposition activism.
