Egypt sentences 14 to death over Sinai attacks
Men belonging to terrorist group called Tawheed and Jihad tried for attacks on army, police forces last year
An Egyptian court sentenced on Monday 14 Islamists to death by hanging and four to life imprisonment over attacks on army and police forces in the Sinai Peninsula last year.
The verdicts showed the state's determination to deal firmly with militant activity in Sinai, which has increased since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Security frces are mounting operations in the area following the killing 16 Egyptian border guards in August.
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The men, who belonged to a militant group called Tawheed and Jihad, were charged by the prosecutor with killing three police officers, an army officer and a civilian in attacks carried out in June and July, 2011.
Eight of the 14 death sentences were in absentia, court sources said.
Defendants in court (Photo: Reuters)
"This court decision is a milestone. It gives a strong message to the militant groups that the state, President Mohammed Morsi's government, will not tolerate attacks on the Egyptian armed forces and police," said Nageh Ibrahim, an Islamist researcher and a former militant.
The verdicts were met with cries from the accused against President Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist head of state elected this year and who the defendants blamed for the court's decision.
"Morsi is an infidel and those who follow him are infidels," shouted one defendant.
Others cried "God is Great" as they listened to the judge from inside the metal cage in which they stood during trial sessions.
The bearded men in the cage wore traditional white robes and some were seen holding the Koran, Islam's holy book. They were accused of opening fire on a police station and a bank in the city of Arish in North Sinai.
The prosecutor said that Tawheed and Jihad group was propagating a hardline Islamist view which allows adherents to declare the head of state an infidel and to carry arms against the government.
The same group was accused of carrying out a series of bomb attacks in 2004 and 2005 against tourist resorts in South Sinai, which lead to the deaths of 34 people.
Egypt and Israel have said they are coordinating on the security operation in Sinai in which hundreds of Egyptian troops with tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters were sent in a joint operation with police to raid militant hideouts, arrest suspects and seize weapons.
Ibrahim, who was jailed during the 1990s but later became one of the leading Islamists to call for an end to violence against the state, said the verdicts will deter other militants from attacking their neighbor Israel.
"Morsi's government is adamant about stemming any attacks across the border because this will give Israel an incentive to reoccupy Sinai. Now is the time for development not war," Ibrahim said.
In the wake of Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the Sinai Peninsula has turned into a terrorist hotbed. Egypt had launched a large-scale operation to root out terrorism in the region after gunmen killed 16 Egyptian soldiers and tried to infiltrate Israel in August.
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