The Giza Criminal Court on Wednesday referred 12 defendants to the Grand Mufti to approve the death sentence in the trial of a former senior security official's murder during a police raid last year.
Death sentences in Egypt require referrals to the Grand Mufti as a judicial measure, pending the top cleric's approval.
The court postponed the trial of 11 other defendants to 8 August.
Former Assistant Giza Security Chief, Nabil Farrag, was shot dead in September 2013 by alleged terrorists while police and army forces were invading the district of Kerdasa, previously a stronghold for Islamist groups sympathizing with ousted president Mohamed Morsy.
The forces were seeking to clear the district of terrorist activity as well as to search for suspects involved in the murder of 16 police officers working at the local police department one month earlier.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
