(AFP File Photo)
By Marina Makary
The ‘Port Said Massacre’ retrial was postponed from Sunday to 9 February, state media has reported.
According to state-run newspaper Al-Ahram, the defence argued that the investigations were affected by the “coverage of Medhat Shalaby’s programme” on the incident. It also stated that the charges are hypothetical and “imaginary”.
The retrial comes after the Court of Cassation accepted appeals by the prosecution and defendants.
There are a total of 73 defendants in the case, sentenced on two separate occasions. The first sentence was delivered in January 2013, when 21 people were sentenced to death. The second verdict came in March 2013, where 21 death sentences were ratified, with five receiving life sentences, ten handed 15 year sentences, two receiving five years and one man receiving a year-long sentence. The defendants are accused of several crimes including premeditated murder and possession of explosives and weapons.
The football stadium deaths occurred in February 2012 at the end of a match between Cairo’s Al-Ahly and Port Said-based Al-Masry when clashes broke out between the two sides, yet the police did not intervene.
