Egypt orders retrial of 152 jailed Islamists

Egyptians pictured outside a courtroom in the southern province of Minya on June 21, 2014 after the court confirmed death sentences for 183 Islamists, including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie. By Mohamed Elshahed (AFP/File)

Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian appeals court Saturday ordered a retrial of 152 Islamists, including 37 sentenced to death in a mass trial that had sparked international outrage, judicial officials said.

Last March, a lower court in the southern province of Minya sentenced to death 529 Islamist supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, including the 152 who were in custody, for attacking a police station and killing an officer in August 2013.

The lower court later commuted the death sentences to life in prison in the case of 492 defendants, while 37 were ordered sent to the gallows.

The 152 defendants in custody appealed the lower court's verdict, which the Court of Cassation overturned, ordering a retrial.

Another batch of 183 Islamists, including the chief of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, was also sentenced to death by the same Minya court last June on similar charges.

Badie, who is in custody and facing several trials, was granted a retrial along with 27 others for being sentenced in absentia by the court in Minya.

Under Egyptian law, people sentenced in absentia automatically get a retrial if they surrender themselves.

Since the army ousted Morsi in 2013, the authorities have launched a crackdown on his supporters leaving hundreds dead and thousands jailed after speedy mass trials.

The United Nations has denounced such mass trials, calling them "unprecedented in recent history".

Morsi and several top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood are facing several trials on charges punishable by death.