Protest over Soccer Verdicts Spread, Deadly
The protests in Egypt over a soccer trial verdict have turned deadly. The northern city of Port Said has seen violence escalate:
“The entire building has been torched,” Azmy Megahed, a spokesman for the Egyptian Football Association, said in an interview on Nile News. “Some people got 15 years. Others got the death sentence. What more do they want?”
Two officers were sentenced to 15-year terms, the state-run Middle East News Agency said. The court also upheld a January ruling that sentenced to death by hanging 21 fans of Port Said’s Al Masry Club. The case became a rallying point for youth that are dissatisfied with the reluctance of President Mohamed Mursi’s Islamist government to reform the police force. Graffiti popped up around Cairo in the days ahead of the ruling declaring “the Interior Ministry’s turn” on March 9.
