Egypt sentences 11 to death over soccer riot

Judge calls for capital punishment for those responsible for a 2012 brawl that left 74 dead

CAIRO — An Egyptian court has sentenced 11 soccer fans to death in the retrial of over 70 defendants accused in a soccer riot in 2012 that left 74 people dead.

Judge Mohammed el-Said said his final ruling for the 11 and the other defendants, including nine police officers, will come on May 30. All death sentences in Egypt require the advisory opinion of the country’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti.

Some 21 fans were initially sentenced to death and seven police officers acquitted in 2013, setting off violent protests by fans in Cairo who torched a police club and the soccer federation’s headquarters. Earlier protests outside the prison in the city of Port Said where the defendants were held resulted in violent clashes with police that left 40 protesters dead.