On Tuesday, an Egyptian criminal court served the death sentence to 11 people for their involvement in the 2012 soccer riots that claimed more than 70 lives and injured hundreds of others in Egypt's worst soccer tragedy ever, according to CNN.
The judgment came at the end of the retrial, in Cairo, after the rulings of the original trial, which sentenced 21 defendants to death, were appealed and a retrial was ordered, reported the New York Times.
More than 70 people, including children, were killed in the violence that took place Feb. 1, 2012, when fans of rival teams rioted at a soccer game in Port Said. Fans of the home team, Al-Masry, stormed the playing field after their victory against the visiting Al-Ahly club from Cairo. Shocked witnesses described police authorities as just standing by and watching as the fans of the two teams violently attacked each other with rocks, knives and swords.
The court sentenced one of the defendants to death in absentia. Ten others received 15-year jail sentences, 14 were sentenced to 10 years in prison and 15 were served 5-year sentences on charges of murder and attempted murder. Twenty-one defendants were found not guilty, according to Reuters.
The police chief of Port Said and another senior police officer were among those who received prison sentences, both getting five years in prison. The prosecution argued that the police was responsible for the attack, as they failed to search the home club's fans upon entering the stadium, which allowed them to carry deadly weapons such as knives, clubs and homemade explosives.
