The West Cairo Military Court upheld on Sunday death sentences for eight civilians and sentenced 12 others to life in prison in the case publicly known as the “specialised intelligence committee” case.
Six defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison and two others were acquitted. Two of those given the death penalty were sentenced in absentia.
The Sunday verdict came after it had previously been postponed three times since the court initially referred the files of eight of the defendants to the grand mufti, a procedural step prior to approving final death sentences, on 7 February.
For two sessions the reason for postponement was that the mufti did not send back his judgment on the case, which is used for consulting and not binding to the court.
Some of the defendants in the case were considered by rights groups and activists as having been “forcibly disappeared” before being shown in a video, released by the Ministry of Defence in July 2015, confessing to being members of a terrorist network and claiming responsibility for attacks on state facilities and personnel.
