News / Egypt

Egypt court sentences seven Morsi supporters to death

Monday, 01 February 2016 6:58 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 01 February 2016 6:59 PM ]

Defendants sit behind bars during their trial at a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, April 19, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

A military court in Egypt sentenced seven supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi to death on Monday over their alleged role in a deadly bombing last year.

The court in the second city of Alexandria handed down the execution sentences to seven of the Muslim Brotherhood members on charges of involvement in last year’s bombing in the northern province of Kafr el-Sheikh.

Three of the defendants were sentenced to death in absentia.

More than a dozen people, mostly from the now-banned Brotherhood, face charges of involvement in the deadly bombing near a military college in the volatile province.

The court has sent the papers of the defendants to the grand mufti of Egypt, and now awaits his non-binding opinion. The final verdict is to be issued in early March.

In mid-April last year, at least three Egyptian army cadets were killed and six others injured when a bomb went off in the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Over the past years, the militant group, known as Velayat Sinai, has been carrying out terror activities across Egypt, taking advantage of the turmoil caused in the country after the first democratically-elected president, Morsi, was ousted by the military in July 2013.

Last November, the group pledged allegiance to Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly operating in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The judge reads out the verdict during the trial of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members in the capital, Cairo, on August 22, 2015. (AFP photo)

The military-backed government blames Brotherhood members for carrying out attacks against security forces. The Brotherhood denies the allegations.

Since the ouster of Morsi, thousands of anti-government protesters, mostly Brotherhood supporters, have been sentenced to jail by civilian and military courts.

Egypt’s harsh crackdown on the Brotherhood and its supporters has been widely condemned by international human rights organizations.

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