Defense lawyers for suspects in the Port Said Stadium massacre have said that their clients were arrested indiscriminately and that prosecutors' charges are baseless.
Seventy-four are standing trial for involvement in the violence that killed 74 people following a Premier League match in Port Said Stadium last February between Egypt's leading team, Ahly, and its host, Masry.
A defense lawyer for the first defendant, Sayed Mohamed Refaat, called for his client to be released, arguing that he was not caught while committing the crime, which negates the legality of the arrest procedures. He also claimed that the defendant had been tortured during interrogation and that his interrogation itself was illegal in the absence of a lawyer.
Judges granted a request by defense lawyers to set an oral argument schedule for each of them in order to organize the process.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
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