Cairo Criminal Court sentenced dangerous Islamist militant Hesham Ashmawy and other 36 members of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis terror group to death on Monday over multiple charges.
The court also handed down several jail terms to 146 other convicts, ranging from five years to life imprisonment. Moreover, the indictment has been dismissed against 22 defendants under the rule of abatement, due to their death.
The case involved 208 defendants accused of 54 charges, including murder of lieutenant colonel Mohamed Mabrouk and major general Mohamed El-Saeed, in addition to the attempted murder of former minister of interior Mohamed Ibrahim in 2013.
They were also accused of orchestrating explosions that targeted three security directorates, destroying 25 public facilities, including mosques and churches, along with robbing a post office and a money transfer vehicle.
The defendants were also charged for founding and joining a terrorist group aiming to suspend the constitution, obstructing official institutions from fulfilling their responsibilities, violating citizens’ freedoms, endangering national unity and social peace, and the acquisition of firearms, ammunition, and explosives, according to the public prosecution.
This was the third time for Ashmawy to receive death sentence since he was extradited from Libya last year. The first death penalty was last November for committing 14 crimes pertinent to the Farafra terror attack against border guards five years ago, killing 28 officers and soldiers.
Ashmawy was a military officer before he was dismissed for accusations of spreading extremist thought. He then travelled to Syria where he joined terror groups. He became the leader of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis group in 2013. He was accused of attempted murder of ex-minister of interior Mohamed Ibrahim and the killing of several military officers.
