Egypt sentences two to death for 2013 embassy clashes

By Sayed Fathi

CAIRO

An Egyptian court Tuesday slapped two people with death sentences for involvement in "acts of violence" that took place near the U.S. embassy in Cairo following Egypt’s 2013 military coup, according to a judicial source.

Tuesday’s sentences, however, are "preliminary and subject to appeal before the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appellate court, within 60 days," the source, preferring anonymity for security reasons, told Anadolu Agency.

According to the same source, 20 other people were sentenced -- six in absentia -- to life behind bars (at a maximum of 25 years) in the same case, while another was slapped with a 10-year jail sentence.

The case relates to events that occurred in July 2013, when clashes erupted near the U.S. embassy in central Cairo between Egyptian security forces and supporters of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president.

Ever since Morsi was ousted in a bloody July 3 military coup, Egypt’s post-coup authorities have waged a relentless crackdown on his supporters and members of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group.