(AFP\Photo)
Assiut’s criminal court passed death sentences on to five people found guilty of murdering a priest from Abu Sefein church in the village of Shatb last year. The decision was made unanimously, according to state-owned Al-Ahram.
The five defendants, Omar Abdullah Yusuf, Khalid Ali Badawi Farghaly, Ihsan Abdel Massih and Hosseini Abdullah Youssef, are convicted of murdering the priest and robbing him of his belongings. Hosseini Abdullah Youssef was sentenced in absentia
A fifth defendant, Mahmoud Abdullah Yusuf, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
The men were charged with premeditated murder, according to Al-Ahram. The men are said to have planned the murder, breaking into the priest’s home with the intent to rob him of his possessions.
The murder was not believed to have been sectarian in nature.
