An Egyptian court has postponed the verdict in the Port Said football tragedy until the 9th of June. The retrial concerns 73 defendants, more than a
ADVERTISEMENTAn Egyptian court has postponed the verdict in the Port Said football tragedy until the 9th of June.
The retrial concerns 73 defendants, more than a month after a death sentence was handed down for 11 of them.
Legal sources say the verdict was delayed after three fugitive defendants turned themselves in, seven others remain on the run.
Outside the court the families of the 74 victims of football stadium riot in 2012 didn’t hide their anger over the court’s decision.
“They do not care about us because they fear the Ministry of the Interior;” said one of the victims relatives. “The defendants were being deliberately provocative wearing t-shirts with slogans of Port Said, the court were supposed to administer justice, but they did not. What is the guilt of those who been killed?”
In March 2013, a court sentenced 23 people to death which prompted riots in Port Said, a retrial was ordered which began last August, prolonging the families search for justice, as euronews correspondent Mohammed Shaikhibrahim explains:
“Today’s decision keeps the case pending, while the events of the tragic massacre stay rooted in the memory of Egyptians, and the families of the victims as well as the defendants who have been waiting for a resolution for a long time.”