Egyptian court upholds 11 soccer riot death sentences

PanARMENIAN.Net - An Egyptian court has upheld the death sentences of 11 men for their part in the country’s worst outbreak of football stadium violence, which left more than 70 fans dead and at least 1,000 injured in 2012, the Guardian reports.

Many of the dead were crushed when panicked fans tried to escape from the Port Said stadium after a post-match pitch invasion by supporters of the local side, al-Masry. Others fell or were thrown from terraces, witnesses said at the time.

The court, whose session was televised live, sentenced one of the men to death in absentia. Ten men got 15 years in jail, 14 were sentenced to 10 years and 15 men received a five-year sentence. Twenty-one people were found innocent. Those convicted can appeal against the verdicts.

In April, a judge referred the death sentences to Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Shawqi Allam, the country’s most senior religious authority, in a step required by law for convictions in capital cases. The mufti’s opinion is not binding and not made public.

Yasser Sayed Ahmed, a lawyer for the family of one of the victims, hailed the ruling as “extremely fair and satisfactory”.

Football matches are often a flashpoint for violence in Egypt. The teams in the Port Said incident – al-Masry and Cairo’s al-Ahli – are longtime rivals. Witnesses said the rioting broke out after Cairo fans unfurled banners insulting the local team, which had won the match 3-1.

Since then Egypt has curbed the number of people allowed to attend matches and supporters have often tried to storm stadiums they are banned from entering. In February, at least 22 people were killed outside a football stadium when security forces barred fans from entering, the public prosecutor’s office said at the time.