4 militants executed for killing cadets in Kafr El-Sheikh

CAIRO – 2 January 2018: Egyptian Authorities on Tuesday executed four terrorists convicted of killing three military cadets in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Northern Cairo, in the Nile Delta of Lower Egypt, according to the Prisons’ Sector of the Ministry of Interior.

In April, 2015, approximately 16 militants targeted military facilities and public properties in Kafr El-Sheikh. The terrorists targeted military cadets who had gathered before the stadium and were waiting for a bus to take them back to the Military Academy in Cairo.

Investigations showed that a bomb was planted in one of the side rooms at the stadium. Seven defendants were sentenced to death, including three persons while absent.

According to the verdict’s text, the defendants, some of whom belong to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, received trainings on targeting, assassination and shooting to kill police, military and judicial members and to carry out sabotage and chaotic acts.

Last week, the Military Court issued a death penalty for nine defendants and a 15-year prison sentence for another defendant in the Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis Group case.

Members of the North Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis were convicted of their involvement in a series of attacks targeting police and military personnel since 2013.

The case involved 155 defendants in 12 different terrorist attacks, including bombings in Egypt's North Sinai and the 2015 bombing of the Italian Consulate in Cairo.

Previously, the court issued a preliminary death sentence on November 28 against 11 defendants.

Since the 2013 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, similar attacks have targeted numerous police and army utilities, leaving soldiers dead. Most of the attacks have taken place in North Sinai, where a “war on terrorism” campaign is ongoing; army officials have announced hundreds of radical Islamist militants killed in the crackdown.

A senior police officer survived an assassination attempt in April 2015 in Fayoum Governorate, 100 kilometers southwest of Cairo, after assailants placed a box containing bombs under his car.

On June 29, 2015, a day before the second anniversary of the June 30 mass protests that demanded Morsi’s ouster, Attorney-General Hesham Barakat was killed in a car bomb attack that targeted his convoy.

In September 2013, then-Minister of Interior, Mohamed Ibrahim, survived a car bomb attack similar to that of Barakat’s.