The Cairo Criminal Court on Saturday sentenced 75 people to death for their participation in a sit-in protest in 2013. The sentences will be reviewed by the Grand Mufti, Egypt's top theological authority who heads a state agency, and can be appealed. In a similar case in 2014, only 7 percent of death sentences were upheld.
The protest in question took place in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square before it was violently dispersed by the Egyptian government. Demonstrators supported former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted in 2013 and is now imprisoned after appealing a death sentence of his own.
The Muslim Brotherhood, with which Morsi is affiliated, has been labeled a terrorist organization and banned in Egypt. Leaders of the group are included in the 75 sentenced Saturday. The defendants in Saturday's hearing are among 739 demonstrators being tried in this case. More sentences will be handed down in September.
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