A court has sentenced more than 500 people to death for their involvement in riots which killed a police officer. The defendants are supporters of the former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted by the military late last year. Defense lawyers say it’s the largest mass death sentence in the country’s modern history.
Professor Clark Lombardi is a specialist on law in the Muslim world at the University of Washington Law School and says this ruling is one of many harsh responses by Egypt’s interim military government to supporters of the former president.