Clashes erupt after Egypt court sentences 21 to death in football riot
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | January 26, 2013 20:39
An Egyptian judge sentenced 21 people to death Saturday for their roles in a football game riot last year, a ruling that sparked deadly clashes between security forces and relatives of the convicted.
ThePort Saidfootball incident left 74 people dead and 1,000 others injured.
Soon after the sentencing in the nation’s worst stadium disaster, protests erupted outside the prison in the northeastern port city. Clashes outsidePort Saidprison left at least 16 people dead and dozens injured, a hospital official told state TV.
The armed forces sent troops to secure public buildings and restore calm inPort Said, according to state media.
The fatal clashes started after some relatives attempted to storm the building to free their loved ones, Brig. Gen. Osama Ismail, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told state-run Nile TV.
Crowds outside the prison fired guns and hurled rocks at the security forces, who in turn used tear gas to disperse the crowd, Ismail said.
The sentences were handed down in a packed courtroom inCairoas victims’ relatives and those convicted wept.
The sentences must be reviewed byEgypt’s highest religious authority, who will return his opinion to the court March 9.
Dubbed the “massacre atPort Said” by Egyptian media, the riot broke out on February 1, 2012, after Port Said-based Al-Masry defeatedCairo’s Al-Ahly, 3-1.
Fans from both sides bashed each other with rocks and chairs. Many of those who died fell from the bleachers during the melee inside the stadium, while others suffocated.
It was unclear whether intense sports rivalries or political strife sparked the riots, though witnesses said tension was building through the game withPort Saidfans throwing bottles and rocks at players on theCairoteam.
During Egypt’s revolution that ended with the toppling of Hosni Mubarak, football fans became a powerful force for political change, according to CNN contributor James Montague, who wrote the book “When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone.”
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