Court places 3 convicts in Mar Mina Church attack on terror list

CAIRO – 13 May 2019: Cairo Criminal Court ordered on Sunday adding three convicts in Helwan's Mar Mina Church terrorist attack in late 2017 to the terror list. The attack reportedly killed nine Christian civilians and a policeman.

The court's decision includes Ibrahim Ismail and Adel Imam who were sentenced to death by the court on Sunday and also Mohamed Okasha who was handed a life imprisonment sentence.

Egypt's anti-terrorism law stipulates that people placed on the terror list can face travel ban and get their assets frozen.

The country's terror list has more than 1,500 names of figures, including top Brotherhood leaders, according to state's Al-Ahram.

The two aforementioned convicts are the only persons in the case facing the death sentence. Two other convicts were handed life sentences, while another was ruled innocent. Four defendants were sentenced to 10 years and two others were sentenced to three years in prison.

In December 2017, two armed men used firearms to target dozens of Christian worshippers attending a religious service at Mar Mina El Agayby & Pope Kerolous Church.

The attackers opened fire at a household appliances shop, then headed to the church, where they attempted to trespass the church's security.

The security forces were able to capture one of the attackers after shooting him and managed to defuse an explosive belt that was fastened around the militant's chest, while the other one fled the scene.

The arraignment of the Public Prosecution consisted of the following charges: forming, leading, and joining a Takfiri group; funding the group’s members; murder of 10 people including police personnel; murder attempt; resisting police forces using violence; manufacturing and possessing an explosive; joining the foreign Islamic State with the aim of plotting terror crimes to be launched in Egypt; possession of firearms and ammunition to be used in terror crimes.

Investigations indicated that convict Ibrahim Ismail formed a terrorist cell that adopts the ideas of the Islamic State. A firearm possessed by Ismail and confiscated by the police was used to kill three workers at the fee collection station located on Ayat-Giza Road.