Eleven Egypt ultras sentenced to death after 74 were killed in stadium horror match between Al-Ahly and Al-Masry

ELEVEN ultras have been sentenced to death in Egypt over one of football’s deadliest disasters.

The country’s highest appeals court on Monday upheld sentences relating to a bloody riot that killed over 70 fans in 2012.

AP

The defendants were charged with murder, along with other charges, as the court upheld convictions of 22 suspects who received up to ten years in the slammer over the riots.

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Eleven were sentenced to death but one remains at large and was tried in absentia.

The rioting erupted at the end of a league match in the Mediterranean city of Port Said between Cairo’s Al-Ahly and home side Al-Masry.

Al-Masry fans rushed to attack Al-Ahly supporters with knives, clubs and rocks.

Witnesses and survivors described victims falling from the satnds as they tried to escape.

Hundreds of others fled into an exit passage, only to be crushed against a locked gate with their rivals attacking from behind.

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AP:Associated Press

AP

AP:Associated Press

The riot led to the suspension of Egypt's top flight for over a year. It later resumed, but with matches played in empty stadiums.

The first Egyptian Premier League game in which fans were allowed back into stadiums in February 2015 was also marred by the death of 22 fans in a stampede outside the grounds.

That followed the use of tear gas by police to stop what authorities at the time said was an attempt by fans to storm the military-owned stadium in a suburb east of Cairo.

In the Port Said disaster, most of the victims belonged to Al-Ahly's 'Ultras Ahlawy,' a group of hardcore fans now banned by authorities.

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In 2015, an Egyptian court ruled that the ultras were a terrorist organisation.

During the 2011 uprising that toppled  President Hosni Mubarak, they often provided muscle at street rallies, directing protesters, leading chants and standing first in the line of fire as riot police unleashed tear gas.

Earlier this month, Egyptian police detained more than 100 Al-Ahly fans over a period of two days on suspicion they had planned to stage a protest on the anniversary of the Port Said rioting.

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