A criminal court in Egypt's Giza has sentenced 13 members of extremist group Ajnad Misr to death after the country's top Muslim legal authority consented to the punishment, Egypt’s Ahram Online reported Thursday (December 7th).
The court issued preliminary death sentences against the defendants, who were convicted of attacking security forces, in October, and referred them to the Grand Mufti, whose opinion is legally required in death penalty cases but is not binding.
The court on Thursday issued a final verdict after the mufti endorsed the sentencing recommendation, which can still be appealed within 60 days.
Ajnad Misr emerged in early 2014, claiming responsibility for a number of attacks on security forces, mainly in Cairo. The group was designated a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government in the same year.
Its leader was killed by Egyptian forces in 2015, and many of its members are in prison.
The defendants were convicted between 2013 and mid-2015 of charges including murder of security forces, attempted murder, joining an outlawed group, and possessing firearms.
Seventeen others of a total of 44 defendants in the same case have been sentenced to life imprisonment, while five were acquitted. The rest received prison sentences of between five and 15 years.
