BREAKING NEWS

Egyptian court sentences 20 to death for killing policemen

CAIRO - An Egyptian court on Sunday upheld the death penalty for 20 men charged with killing policemen in the violence that followed the military's ousting of an Islamist president in 2013, while changing the sentence for many others to hefty prison terms.
The verdicts can again be appealed.
The case involves 156 people on trial and is known as the "Kerdasa incident" in reference to the pro-Muslim Brotherhood neighborhood where the violence took place in the Giza province adjacent to Cairo.
Islamist gunmen fired rocket propelled grenades at a police station in Kerdasa on Aug. 14, 2013, and slit a policeman's throat before burning the building down, hours after security forces violently dispersed two protest camps, killing hundreds.
"The crimes the defendants are accused of were committed by a group charged with carrying them out," said Judge Sherine Fahmy before reading out the verdict.