ISMAILIA: Egypt s state security court sentenced three people to death during a court hearing on Thursday over involvement in a series of blasts targeting Red Sea holiday resorts. The three were convicted of seven charges, including illegal possession of weapons, manufacturing explosives and plotting to kill Egyptians and foreigners. The prosecutors said Younis Gurair, Osama Al-Nakhlawi and Mohamed Hussein were members of a local group called Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and Holy War), blamed for bombings and attacks in Sinai over the past two years.
A judge at the Ismailiya Emergency state security court transferred the files of three of the defendants in the case, to the grand mufti, who must approve all death sentences before they can be carried out except those issued by military courts, a source told AFP. The three have denied the charges and said they confessed under torture. Eleven other people are on trial over the bombings in Taba and two other beach resorts popular with Israelis in October 2004. The attacks killed more than 34 people. Egyptian prosecutors had originally indicted three men over the bombings but one man charged in absentia, Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Fulayfel, was killed in a gun battle with police. The prosecutors said the group had proclaimed the Egyptian leadership religiously illegitimate and targeted foreign tourists. Human rights groups have said the authorities detained up to 2,500 people for questioning after the bombings, subjecting many to torture. Egyptian officials deny the torture. The case is scheduled to resume on November 30. Several men the authorities have said were wanted in the case have died in gun battles with police in Sinai. Egyptian authorities say the bombers were Sinai Bedouins, some of them with Palestinian connections, but that it does not believe they had any outside connections. The authorities have previously said they suspect the group behind the bombings was also responsible for a blast in August that damaged a multinational observer force vehicle. Agencies
