Egypt upholds death penalties for 2012 football clashes

By Sayed Fathi and Mustafa Eid

CAIRO (AA) - Egypt’s highest appellate court on Monday upheld death sentences handed down earlier against 10 people in connection with the death of dozens of football fans in the canal city of Port Said in 2012, according to a local judicial source.

At least 72 fans were crushed to death in 2012 following a heated football match between Cairo’s Al-Ahly club and Port Said’s Al-Masry team.

In June of last year, an Egyptian court slapped 11 people with death sentences after concluding they had been partially responsible for the violence.

On Monday, the Court of Cassation rejected appeals filed by ten of the defendants against the convictions before confirming the death sentences, the source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to media.

An eleventh defendant, tried in absentia, was likewise slapped with a death sentence.

The court also confirmed a lower court’s sentencing of 10 other defendants in the case to 15 years in prison each, 15 defendants to 10 years each, and 15 others to five years each.

Among those who received five-year jail sentences was a former Port Said police chief.

Monday’s verdicts are final and cannot be appealed.

The 2012 football incident sent shockwaves across Egypt and embarrassed the country’s then-ruling Supreme Military Council.

The military council had assumed executive authority after autocratic President Hosni Mubarak stepped down -- after three decades in power -- in early 2011.