Court upholds death sentences against 13 'Agnad Misr' convicts

CAIRO - 8 May 2019: The Court of Cassation, the highest civilian court in Egypt, upheld death sentences against 13 members, and life imprisonment sentences against 17 others, over carrying out attacks against security forces, in the case known as "Agnad Misr Organization."

The Cassation Court, whose rulings cannot be challenged on appeal, also upheld 15-year imprisonment sentences against two convicts, five-year imprisonment sentences against seven convicts, while it upheld acquitting five defendants of charges.

Over 80 sessions were held to judge the defendants in the case within the past four years. Agnad Misr is a group that emerged in early 2014, and had targeted security forces, until the group's leader was killed in 2015.

Since the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated former President Mohamed Morsi, and the death of dozens of policemen and hundreds of Morsi supporters during the dispersal of pro-Morsi protests in Al-Nahda and Rabaa Al-Adaweya squares, Islamist terrorism prevailed in the country and hundreds of policemen and army troops have been killed in terrorist attacks since then.

In February 2018, under the title "Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018", Egypt's Armed Forces launched a comprehensive military operation targeting the hotbeds of terrorists in Northern and Central Sinai.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi authorized the army chief of staff to use “brutal force” against terrorism.