EGYPT: MILITARY COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR MILITANTS

An Egyptian military court confirmed death sentences against seven Islamist militants convicted of attacking and killing army officers, the semi-official newspaper Al Ahram reported online.
The confirmation was made after the tribunal received a report from the country’s chief legal Islamic authority, the Grand Mufti, on an initial ruling issued by the court in August, according to the paper.
Under Egypt’s criminal law, civil and military courts have to refer preliminary death sentences to the Grand Mufti for an advisory opinion.
The military court also handed down life imprisonment to two defendants in the same case related to the killing of two army officers during a security crackdown on an arms cache manned by suspected Islamist insurgents in the province of Qaliubia earlier this year.
The defendants are members of Ansar Bait Al Maqdis, a Sinai-based militant group that has claimed a series of deadly attacks against Egyptian security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in mid-2013.