The Giza Criminal Court will issue its verdict in the trial of 31 defendants in the 2013 murder of four Shiites in a Giza village on June 13.

The defendants are facing charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, unlawful assembly, arson, vandalism and illegal possession of firearms.

On 23 June 2013, the four Shiites were beaten to death in Abul Nomros after Sunni villagers partially set their house on fire in one of the most serious sectarian incidents in Egypt in recent years.

The tension was triggered by an extremist religious discourse at a nearby mosque that accused the four of spreading the Shiite doctrine in the country.