the Court of Cassation upheld death sentences passed down on three defendants over the murder of a high-ranking police officer in rural Kerdasa town in September 2013 in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster.

the Court of Cassation upheld death sentences passed down on three defendants over the murder of a high-ranking police officer in rural Kerdasa town in September 2013 in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster. The court commuted four other death sentences to life imprisonment in the same case. It also confirmed 10-year jail sentences on five others. The defendants were convicted of the September 2013 murder of police officer Nabil Farag as well as the attempted murder of other police officer during a subsequent raid by security forces on terrorist hideouts in Kerdasa. They were also convicted of possessing arms and explosives manufactured to use against the state. Saturday’s ruling comes following an appeal against death sentences passed down in the case on seven defendants in September 2016. Kerdasa is known to be a stronghold of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.