Egypt sentences 13 to death for alleged 2014 violence

CAIRO

An Egyptian military court on Wednesday sentenced 13 people to death after convicting them of killing 21 soldiers in western Egypt in 2014.

According to Egyptian state daily Al-Akhbar, the 13 convicts were sentenced to death -- 12 of whom had been tried in absentia -- by the West Cairo Military Court.

The raft of death sentences, the same paper reported, could still be appealed before Egypt’s Military Appeals Court.

In 2014, public prosecutors referred the 13 suspects, one of whom is a former army officer, to the military court for allegedly killing 21 soldiers and attacking a police station in Egypt’s western Farafra province.

The defendants have consistently denied all the charges against them.

Egypt has been roiled by chaos since mid-2013, when the army overthrew Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president and a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Since Morsi’s ouster, Egypt’s post-coup authorities have waged a relentless crackdown on dissent, killing hundreds of Morsi’s supporters and throwing tens of thousands behind bars.

Reporting by Mustafa Eid; Writing by Ali Abo Rezeg;