Egyptian court sentences 11 fans to death more than soccer riot

CAIRO: Egyptian court has sentenced 11 soccer fans to death in the retrial of more than 70 defendants accused in a soccer riot in 2012 that left 74 people today dead.

Judge Mohammed el-Said mentioned his final ruling for the 11 and the other defendants, such as nine police officers, will come on May well 30.

All death sentences in Egypt require the advisory opinion of the nation’s best religious authority, the Grand Mufti.

Some 21 fans had been initially sentenced to death and seven police officers acquitted in 2013, setting off violent protests by fans in Cairo who torched a police club and the soccer federation’s headquarters. Earlier protests outside the prison in the city of Port Stated exactly where the defendants were held resulted in violent clashes with police that left 40 protesters dead.(Toronto Star)