Crime & Justice

Egypt executes 8 men over church bombings

By AFP

Mourners carry the coffin of one of the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church in Alexandria the previous day during a funeral procession at the Monastery of Mar Mina in the city of Borg El-Arab, east of Alexandria on April 10th, 2017. [Mohamed al-Shahed/AFP]

Mourners carry the coffin of one of the victims of the blast at the Coptic Christian Saint Mark's church in Alexandria the previous day during a funeral procession at the Monastery of Mar Mina in the city of Borg El-Arab, east of Alexandria on April 10th, 2017. [Mohamed al-Shahed/AFP]

Egypt has executed eight men sentenced to death over deadly attacks claimed by the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) on churches and a police checkpoint, judicial and medical sources said Tuesday (February 25th).

The convicts, whose final appeal against the death penalty was denied in May last year, were put to death at dawn on Monday, the sources said.

They were among 17 defendants who were sentenced to death by a military court in October 2018 for their roles in the attacks on churches in Alexandria, Cairo and Tanta and a police checkpoint in south-western Egypt, a judicial source told AFP.

The other nine were tried in absentia and remain at large.

The four attacks in 2016 and 2017, mostly targeting Christians, killed a total of 88 people.

The Coptic Christian minority makes up between 10 and 15% of Egypt's 100 million population and has been particularly targeted by ISIS.

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