Cairo: An Egyptian court Tuesday sentenced 188 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammad Mursi to death in the latest such mass sentencing against Islamists.
The Giza Criminal Court convicted the defendants of storming a police station in the area of Kerdasa near Cairo and killing 13 people, including 11 police officers, in the unrest that erupted last year following a deadly security crackdown on two pro-Mursi protest camps.
The defendants were also found guilty of torching police cars and possessing weapons.
The preliminary verdict will now go to the Grand Mufti, Egypt's top legal Islamic official, to approve or reject it -- an obligatory step on death sentencing under the Egyptian legal system.
The court has set January 24 for delivering the final ruling.
Thousands of Mursi's backers have been rounded up and put on trial since the army deposed the Islamist leader in mid-2013 following enormous street protests against his rule.
In June, another court confirmed death sentences against 183 Islamists, including head of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood Mohammad Badie, on charges related to deadly rioting in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya.
