Egypt: Court sentences 9 to death for 2013 'Kerdasa massacre'; torching of police station

Egyptian authorities on Monday executed at least nine men convicted of massacre linked to the horrendous attack on Kerdasa's main police station, close to the pyramids in Giza town in 2013. The Egyptian court had sentenced 188 in connection to the attack on security personnel in the restive town following the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi that year. The attack preceded the suspension of police personnel of at least two protest sit-in camps in Cairo and Giza, shortly afterward, unruly miscreants in possession of heavy arms torched the police station and charred the police vehicles. As many as 15 casualties were reported, which included 11 police officers. At least  20 defendants were sentenced to death in 2017 in the Wadi Natrun prison complex in the Nile Delta province of Beheira in connection with the incident, sources aware of the development told The Associated Press. Many were handed life imprisonment. 

After Egypt’s senior Brotherhood Islamist figure Morsi was toppled from power by the state military for his divisive regime, the suspect members of the two Muslim Brotherhood groups organized the civil uprising. Egypt’s government, declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, despite that they had secured victory in elections after the Arab Spring uprising in 2011 that ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade ruling. According to the AP, the terror ensued after the military forces cleared the protesting camps, and opened fire killing hundreds during the confrontation. 

Religious edict on 'terror outfit'

The rebel Islamist defendant then launched violence not far from Egypt's grand pyramids, which appeared to be slowly Turing into an armed uprising. The group killed hundreds of police recruits and military officers in a massacre as they set the station ablaze. The incident was so widely condemned, that the Egyptian media aired visuals of the prominent Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi issuing a fatwah or religious edict on the terror outfit in a live-streamed broadcast. 

But some, such as the regional research and advocacy director Amnesty International, Philip Luther, denounced Monday’s execution ruling, which he described as a “grossly unfair trial.” By carrying out these executions during the holy month of Ramadan the Egyptian authorities have displayed a ruthless determination to persist with their escalating use of the death penalty,” he argued. Several other critics of the ruling government debated the court’s verdict saying that it was biased.