CAIRO – Egyptian soccer fans rampaged through the heart of Cairo on Saturday, furious about the acquittal of seven police officers while death sentences against 21 alleged rioters were confirmed in a trial over a stadium melee that left 74 people dead.

The case of the Feb. 1, 2012, stadium riot in the city of Port Said at the northern tip of the Suez Canal has taken on political undertones not just because police faced allegations of negligence in the tragedy but also because the verdicts were announced at a time when Egypt is in the grip of the latest and most serious bout of political turmoil in the two years since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.

Saturday’s verdicts also were handed down against the backdrop of an unprecedented wave of strikes by the nation’s police force over demands for better working conditions and anger over what many believe are attempts by President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood to take control of the police force.

Tensions over the riot — which began when supporters of Port Said’s Al-Masry club set upon fans of Cairo’s Al-Ahly club after the final whistle of a league game that the home team won — have fueled some of the deadliest street violence in months. Police guarding the stadium, meanwhile, faced allegations ranging from not searching people entering the stadium to failing to intervene to stop the bloodshed.

Shortly after the verdict was announced Saturday, angry fans of Cairo’s Al-Ahly club who had gathered in the thousands outside the team’s headquarters in central Cairo went on a rampage, torching a police club nearby and storming Egypt’s soccer federation headquarters before setting it ablaze.

The twin fires sent plumes of thick black smoke billowing out over the Cairo skyline, prompting Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to dispatch two army helicopters to extinguish the fires.

At least five people were injured in the protests, a Health Ministry official told the MENA state news agency.

 

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