69 Mursi-supporters get life terms for torching church in Egypt

The Coptic church was set on fire and a police station was attacked when violence erupted in the town of Kerdasa on August 14, 2013.

By (AFP)

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Published: Wed 29 Apr 2015, 8:07 PM

Last updated: Thu 25 Jun 2015, 9:54 PM

Cairo - Egypt jailed 69 supporters of ousted president Mohammed Mursi for life on Wednesday for torching a church near Cairo in August 2013, a judicial official said.

The Coptic church was set on fire and a police station was attacked when violence erupted in the town of Kerdasa on August 14 that year, after hundreds of Mursi supporters died in a crackdown on two protest camps in the capital the same day.

The court also sentenced two minors to 10 years in jail in the same case.

Hundreds of Mursi supporters have been given death sentences or life in jail after often speedy mass trials which the United Nations has called “unprecedented in recent history”.

Mursi himself was given a 20-year prison term by a court last week for ordering the arrest and torture of demonstrators involved in clashes in 2012 when he was president.

Mursi was ousted by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on July 3, 2013 after mass street protests against his year-long divisive rule.


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