On Tuesday, an Egyptian criminal court gave the death penalty verdict to 188 people accused for killing police force members in an Aug. 14, 2013 attack on a Kerdassa police station located on the outskirts of Cairo. The accused were found guilty of killing the policemen on the day security forces powerfully dispersed two pro-Morsi protests in Cairo that left hundreds of demonstrators' fatalities.

The Egypt death penalty verdict was handed down after the accused were found guilty for the 2013 attack known as the "Kerdassa Massacre" that had killed 11 police officers and two civilians. During the police operation, DW News reported almost 700 people died where security forces violently dispersed supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The death penalties in Egypt on Dec. 2 are preliminary and need to be approved by the nation's highest Muslim religious authority called the "Grand Mufti." The final decision of the court's verdict is expected to be announced on January.

Meanwhile, international human rights group denounced Egypt on Wednesday over the court's decision for mass executions of 188 Islamists. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Judge Nagi Shehata imposed the sentences after he convicted all the defendants of participating in an August 2013 attack on a police station in the governorate of Giza.

"Mass death sentences are fast losing Egypt's judiciary whatever reputation for independence it once had," HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said. "Instead of weighing the evidence against each person, judges are convicting defendants en masse without regard for fair trial standards."

The provisional death penalty verdict came just days after an Egyptian court on Saturday cited a procedural technicality to dismiss charges against former president Hosni Mubarak, who had been accused of killing protesters during the 2011 uprising. The New York Times reported rights advocates disputed the decision saying it captured the systemic bias of the Egyptian courts.  

"It is just one more piece of evidence that the judiciary is just a political tool the government uses to prosecute its enemies and free the people it wants to be freed," Whitson stated.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been sentenced by Egyptian courts to drawn-out prison terms. The Daily Star said several were also sentenced death penalties after speedy mass trials that the United Nations called "unprecedented in recent history."

The Egypt death penalties on Tuesday were also slammed by Amnesty International (AI).

"It is quite telling that the sentencing... was handed down in the same week that the case against former president Hosni Mubarak was dropped," AI's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Hassiba Hadj Sahrouai said. "This is blatantly a case of justice being meted out based on a political whim."

Of the 188 defendants sentenced to death penalty by the Egyptian court, 135 were present in custody while 53 others were tried and sentenced in absentia. Shehata set a Jan. 24 court date to finalize the verdicts.