55 defendants to be retried for prisons break

CAIRO – 23 August 2018: The Giza Criminal Court has set September 4 as a session to continue examining procedures for the retrial of a defendant involved in storming Atfih police station.

Last July, the court sentenced 55 defendants to a 15-year rigorous imprisonment and obliged them to pay a sum of EGP 340,000 as compensation for damage they caused at the police station, in addition to paying EGP 10,000 for two of the victims.

About 31 other defendants were handed down a five-year prison sentence in the same case.

Earlier, the public prosecution had referred the defendants to the criminal court for forming a gang and storming Atfih police station in Giza in 2013 following the dispersal of Rabaa el Adwiya and Nahda sit-ins.

They face charges of smuggling prisoners, using violence, attacking public and private properties and committing arson.

The defendants had also been charged with attacking police personnel, setting 15 police vehicles ablaze as well as 65 private cars besides stealing weapons from the police station.