On Tuesday, a final ruling against 52 political detainees and 5 acquittals was issued by a court in the Rabaa dispersal case.
The Court of Cassation, whose rulings are final and cannot be appealed, upheld the sentences issued by the Minya Criminal Court in July 2021, to sentence 52 defendants to imprisonment ranging between 3 and 15 years, while acquitting 5 defendants.
The court rejected the appeals of the 52 defendants against charges of unlawful gathering, violence, vandalism and attempted murder in the Al-Adwa area in Minya Governorate, following the dispersal of the Rabaa sit-in.
On August 14, 2013, the Egyptian police and army forces dispersed the Rabaa sit-in, which is considered the largest mass murder in modern Egyptian history.
The armed dispersal resulted in the killing of more than 1,100 innocent people, including women and children, in addition to the injury and arrest of thousands. Since the dispersal, 37 persons have been missing to date.
Since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assumed power in the country, the Egyptian authorities have been waging an unprecedented crackdown on dissidents and critics, arresting thousands in politically motivated arrests, many of whom have been convicted and sentenced to unfair trials, or held without trial for years on baseless terrorism-related charges, where they remain in very poor detention cells.
