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An Egyptian court sentenced one man to death and 11 to life imprisonment after convicting them of joining a “terrorist group” linked to the Islamic State group, state media reported Wednesday. The same counter-terrorism court in Cairo also handed down three 15-year jail sentences, three 10-year sentences and four acquittals at Tuesday’s hearing, the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported.
The defendants were found guilty of “leading or joining a terrorist group” in the capital between 2015 and September 7, 2019, the paper said. Their convictions are subject to appeal.
After then army chief now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, jihadists, some inspired by the Islamic State group, carried out a wave of attacks on the security forces and other targets, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula.
The authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown on Islamists and other dissidents in which thousands were detained. The Egyptian courts have handed down death sentences or long jail terms after mass trials that have drawn condemnation from the United Nations and human rights groups. In a single trial last year, 215 defendants received sentences ranging from 10 years to the death sentence.
In January alone, the Egyptian courts handed down 85 death sentences, of which 39 have been approved by the grand mufti, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Egypt carried out the third highest number of executions in the world in 2021, after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
