An Egyptian appeals court has granted a retrial for a top militant and 15 others accused of killing 25 Egyptian police officers in 2013.
Saturday’s ruling overturns previous convictions ranging from a death sentence to 15 years in prison.
The attack in 2013 saw militants ambush two minibuses carrying off-duty police officers near the border town of Rafah, days after a security crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
Officials say militants lined up the officers before shooting them.
Authorities have said defendant Adel Habara, who previously was sentenced to death, is a senior member of the Sinai-based militant organisation Ansar Beit Al Maqdis. The group, however, did not claim responsibility for the 2013 attack.
In December, a lower court sentenced seven of the accused including Habara to death and gave varying jail terms to the remaining defendants on charges of murdering 25 policemen in an attack in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula in 2013.
The attack was carried out weeks after the military deposed Mursi, and days after hundreds of Mursi’s supporters were killed when police broke up violent protests in Cairo.
