Egyptian court gives life sentence for 8 IS-linked militants
An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced eight people
to life in prison, after they were convicted of joining a local affiliate of
the Islamic State group spearheading an insurgency in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
The Cairo Criminal Court gave 29 others sentences
ranging from 15 to 1 year in prison. It also acquitted seven others, including
a soccer player, in the same case. The verdict can be appealed.
The court said the defendants were accused of
forming and joining IS cells that were active in several provinces including
the capital, Cairo, from 2015 to early 2018.
It said the defendants were also accused of plotting
attacks on the country’s Christian minority and their churches, assaulting
security forces and disrupting public order through attacking public
institutions.
In a separate case, the court also referred the case
of three defendants facing terrorism charges to the country’s top religious
authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion on whether they can be
executed as the state’s prosecution seeks.
It said the defendants are members of a militant group
known as Hasm, which has targeted security forces. The group has been linked to
the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization.
The men are among 11 defendants accused of carrying
out a militant attack in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in March 2018.
Two policemen were killed, and five other people were wounded in the explosion,
which the government said was intended to assassinate the city’s police chief,
Maj. Gen. Mostafa Al-Nemr.
The verdict is set for Mar. 31, and the presiding
judge may rule independently of the Mufti.
