The Khanka Misdemeanor Court set 7 June to issue a ruling on an appeal by Heliopolis deputy police chief and three policemen at the same department over a prison sentence over charges of causing the death of 37 inmates on their transfer to Abu Zaabal prison.
Thirty-six arrested supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsy were killed in mid-August 2013 inside an inmate transport van in the prisons Abu Zaabal in Qalyubiya, North Cairo, according to the Interior Ministry at that time.
The ministry claimed that after their arrival to the prison in the van, Morsy supporters held a police officer hostage, prompting security forces to use tear gas inside the van to prevent their escape, resulting in the death of 36 people, as a result from suffocation and the stampede.
In March, the court sentenced the deputy police chief to ten years, while handing the three other defendants a suspended one-year sentence.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
