An Appeals court in Egypt today cancelled death sentences of 149 activists of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The defendants were accused of attacking a police station in Kerdasa, near Cairo, in 2013, in which at least 13 officers were killed. The court also ordered a retrial for the defendants.
The initial ruling came in February last year amid a series of death sentences in mass trials that were criticised internationally. The court had sentenced 149 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death and 34 others sentenced to death in absentia.
Since ex-president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster, the Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. Seven people have been executed for political violence since then.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie and 100 other leaders were sentenced in June to death for escaping prison in 2011.