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.
The Port Said football 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 outside Port Said prison
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 in Port 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.
"There is a state of anger on the streets of Port Said, and the security forces are on high alert," Nile TV reported.
The sentences were handed down in a packed courtroom in Cairo as victims' relatives and those convicted wept.
In the hours after the
riot in Port Said, protesters in Cairo chanted, "Down with military
rule." At the time, the secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood
party blamed Egypt's military for the deaths.
Egypt's interior ministry blamed fans for provoking police. Witnesses said police did little to try to quell the clashes.
SOURCE: CNN
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