An Egyptian court has confirmed death sentences for 21 football fans found guilty of causing a riot in the Mediterranean city of Port Said in which more than 70 people were killed.
Announcing the verdict, which was broadcast live on television, the judge said the Cairo court had confirmed “the death penalty by hanging”. He also sentenced five more people to life in jail for the riot and acquitted 28. Others out of a total of 73 defendants received shorter jail sentences.
Most of the men found guilty were football fans although two police officers were jailed for 15 years.
The riots began in February 2012 after supporters of the home team in Port Said, al-Masry, invaded the pitch and attacked the fans of the visiting team, al-Ahly, from Cairo. Police stepped back from the trouble and turned off the stadium’s electricity. Fans were crushed at locked doors in the darkness.
The initial death sentences, handed down in January, were met with more riots in Port Said which have continued sporadically. At least eight people have been killed this week, including three policemen.
The case has highlighted worsening law and order in much of Egypt since the overthrow of the former president Hosni Mubarak two years ago.
The government of President Mohamed Morsi is struggling to halt the slide in security, hampered by a strike by some police in protests that are likely to be fuelled by Saturday’s jail sentences for the senior officers.
Many fans of the Cairo side were happy with the ruling on Saturday confirming the death sentences. “This is a just verdict and has calmed us all down. Our martyrs have been vindicated,” Said Sayyid, 21, told Reuters.
The guardian
