CAIRO, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's top court upheld on Saturday the death penalty for six loyalists of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group over attacking a police station in the southern province of Minya in 2013, official MENA news agency reported.
The court of cassation also reduced the execution verdicts against three defendants to 25-year imprisonment, upheld the 25-year jail for 59 defendants and acquitted 47 others.
The rulings are final and unappealable, as they have been issued in response to a previous appeal by the defendants against the initial rulings of a criminal court.
According to the court, the convicts stormed a police station in Minya's Matay town, stole the weapons inside, killed a senior policeman, attempted to murder others, allowed detainees to escape and finally set fire to the police station.
Being supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, the convicts committed the acts of violence following the massive security dispersal of two major pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and nearby Giza in August 2013 that left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.
Morsi was removed by the army in early July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood group.
A lot of Brotherhood leaders, members and supporters, including Morsi himself and the group's top chief Mohamed Badie, are currently jailed and many have received appealable death sentences and life imprisonments over various charges varying from inciting violence and murder to espionage and jailbreak.
Morsi is now serving a 20-year prison sentence over inciting deadly clashes between his supporters and opponents in late 2012 and a 25-year jail term over leaking classified documents to Qatar.
Since Morsi's ouster, Egypt has been facing a wave of terror attacks that have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers as well as civilians.
A Sinai-based militant group affiliated with the Islamic State regional terrorist group has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.
