Reprieve for 149 on death row in Egypt

An Egyptian appeals court overturned on Wednesday death sentences for 149 prisoners accused of killing policemen in a mob attack on their station, a judicial source said.
The court ordered a retrial for the defendants over the attack, which killed 13 policemen near Cairo on Aug. 14, 2013, the day police shot dead hundreds of demonstrators in the capital.
The initial ruling in February 2015 came amid a series of death sentences in mass trials that were criticized internationally, as the government cracked down on supporters of ousted President Muhammad Mursi.
The court had also sentenced 37 people to death in absentia, but they would have to hand themselves in for a retrial.
The grounds for the appeals court ruling were not immediately available, but the court has overturned hundreds of death sentences over the past year, to the relief of rights advocates and frustration of some in the government who have urged fast track executions.
Seven people have been executed for political violence since Mursi’s ouster, including six who were convicted of belonging to a militant group.
The military overthrow of Mursi, the country’s first freely elected president, ushered in the worst domestic bloodshed in the country’s modern history.

Source: Arab News