Egyptian court sentences 3 men to death for 2013 violence

CAIRO – An Egyptian court has sentenced three men to death and another 41 to life imprisonment for their part in a 2013 attack on a police station south of Cairo.

Wednesday’s verdicts are the latest to come out of mass trials, mostly for Islamists, that have drawn scathing criticism by rights groups for their perceived lack of fairness.

Last week, a Cairo court sentenced to death 75 people, including senior members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The verdicts were condemned by the EU and the U.N.

Wednesday’s sentences by a criminal court in Minya province targeted militants charged with storming a police station in the town of Samalout to avenge the violent breakup by security forces of sit-in protests in Cairo by supporters of an Islamist president who hailed from the Brotherhood.