17 People Receive Death Sentence in Egypt

In Egypt, seventeen people were sentenced to death on Thursday by a military court for attacks on churches in 2016 and 2017.

19 others were sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 others received 10 to 15 years’ behind bars.

In total, 46 people were found guilty of the murder of 74 people and attempted murder of 152 others during the attacks in Cairo in December 2016 and in Tanta and Alexandria in April 2017. Attacks which were claimed by the Islamic State.

However, the proceedings were dropped for two people who died during the process.

In a first judgment in April, 36 people were sentenced to death. But on Thursday, the court, which took over the case, finally sentenced 17 people to death.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, Amnesty International, an NGO that regularly denounces the repression carried out in Egypt by the authorities, said that “imposing a collective death penalty after an unfair military trial will not deter future attacks.