Egypt court sentences seven jihadists to
death in Sinai case
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[December 06, 2014]
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court
has sentenced to death seven men, including prominent Islamist militant
Adel Habara, over the killing of 25 policemen last year in an attack
near the border with Israel, judicial sources said on Saturday.
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The attack took place in August 2013 following the government's
violent clearing of two protest camps in Cairo, where supporters of
deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi had gathered to demand his
reinstatement.
The court sentenced 25 others on related charges to prison for terms
ranging from 15 years to life. Only 19 of those sentenced were
present, including Habara, the sources said.
The ruling, which can be appealed, followed the referral of the
death sentence to the Grand Mufti, Egypt's highest Sunni Muslim
authority.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief engineered Mursi's
overthrow following protests against his rule and then launched a
crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood supporters, faces a growing
Islamist insurgency in the lawless Sinai Peninsula adjoining Israel
and the Gaza Strip.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Dec/06/images/ads/current/businesscardlookat.png) Thousands of Brotherhood supporters have been rounded up in the
crackdown and hundreds have since been sentenced to death. Liberal
activists have also been suppressed, with many of the leading lights
of the 2011 popular uprising also facing trial for breaking a law
that seeks to curb protests.
More than 500 people, mostly police and soldiers, have been killed
across Egypt in Islamist militant attacks since last summer,
according to government statistics.
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Officials have expressed concern about fighters crossing Egypt's
western border from Libya.
Sisi's government does not differentiate between radical Islamist
groups based mainly in the Sinai and the Brotherhood, which
maintains it is a peaceful organization and has denied any
connection with recent anti-state violence.
(Reporting by Ali Abdellati, writing by Stephen Kalin, editing by
Louise Heavens)
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