Egypt court sentences 11 to death for football riots

Cairo, April 19 (IANS)

An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced 11 people to death for their involvement in the 2012 football riots, which claimed the lives of 72 football fans, MENA news agency reported. The Port Said Criminal Court referred the papers of the 11 people implicated in the Port Said stadium riots to the mufti of Egypt to take his religious opinion about their death sentences.

The country's top religious authority has to be consulted for all death sentences.

This came as part of the re-trial of the case that was ordered by the Court of Cassation in 2014 after accepting appeals by both the prosecution and defendants.

As many as 73 people, including nine security officials, were arrested right after the February 2012 riots at the end of a game between Al Ahly and Al-Masry clubs in the Suez Canal city.

Initially, 21 people were sentenced to death and five others to life imprisonment. At least, seventy-two people were killed and 254 others were injured in the country's worst ever football riots.