30 defendants receive prison terms over Alexandria church attack plot

CAIRO – 30 March 2019: The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced on Saturday 30 defendants to between 10 years to life in prison for plotting a suicide bombing on a church in Alexandria’s Al-Asafra neighborhood and joining a terrorist group.

Court officials said in press remarks that the defendants had embraced the ideas of ISIS and received their training abroad.

The attack on the church did not take place, however, two deadly bombings took place targeting two churches in Alexandria and Tanta in April 2017, which left 45 people dead.

Remembering servicemen, women who died protecting Alexandria's Coptic Cathedral

CAIRO - 10 April 2017: Four hours after the explosion of a bomb that targeted the Mar Girgis Church in Tanta, north of Cairo, on Palm Sunday, a suicide bomber turned the prayers of worshippers at Alexandria's Coptic Orthodox Church into screams and tears.

Twenty of the defendants who appeared in court did not react to the sentences, and there was no immediate comment from lawyers representing them.

The other 10 are still on the run and were sentenced in absentia.

Earlier, Egypt’s General Prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered the referral of 30 terrorists to the Higer State Security Criminal Court for establishing a terrorist group that embraced that ideology of ISIS.