EGYPT CONFIRMS DEATH SENTENCES AGAINST 22 MORSI BACKERS

An Egyptian court confirmed death sentences against 22 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi over an attack on a police station in which one officer was killed.
The attack in the town of Kerdasa on the outskirts of Cairo on July 3, 2013 came on the same day that then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced he was overthrowing Morsi.
Monday’s court ruling confirmed the death sentences it handed down against the 22 defendants in March after they had received the statutory approval of the country’s highest Muslim religious authority, the mufti.
Fourteen of the 22 defendants are in custody, while eight are on the run, a court official said.
The defendants were convicted of “illegal assembly, vandalism, murder and attempted murder”.