CAIRO, June 7 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court sentenced on Thursday 28 defendants up to 15 years in prison over storming a police station following the removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, official MENA news agency reported.
Giza Criminal Court sentenced 18 defendants to 15 years in jail and 10 others to five years for breaking into a police station in Atfih district in Giza province near the capital Cairo.
The defendants also faced charges of assaulting the police station chief and other policemen, as well as setting fire to 15 police vehicles, burning down 65 seized private cars and stealing police weapons.
Morsi was removed by the military in early July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule. Later security crackdown on his supporters, mostly from the currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.
Newly re-elected President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi led Morsi's ouster as the army chief then.
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.
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, with a Sinai-based militant group affiliated with the regional Islamic State terrorist group claiming responsibility for most of them.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by Sisi following Morsi's removal.
