EGYPT: GRAND MUFTI AFFIRMS DEATH SENTENCES FOR 13 AJNAD MISR TERRORISTS

A criminal court in Egypt's Giza has sentenced 13 members of the terrorist group Ajnad Misr to death after the country's top Muslim legal authority consented to the punishment, following their conviction for attacking security forces.
The court issued preliminary death sentences against the defendants in October and referred them the grand mufti, whose opinion is legally required in death penalty cases but is not binding.
The court on December 7 issued a final verdict after the mufti endorsed the sentencing recommendation, which can still be appealed within 60 days.
Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, emerged in early 2014, claiming responsibility for a number of attacks on security forces mainly in the Egyptian capital. The group was designated a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government in the same year.
Its leader was killed by security forces in 2015, and many of its members are in jail.
The defendants were convicted of charges including murder of security forces, attempted murder, joining an outlawed group, and possessing firearms, for events that took place between 2013 and mid-2015.
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 between 5-15 years in jail.