Egypt condemns 7 to death over IS links

CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Saturday condemned to death seven people for membership of the IS group and over the beheading on a Libyan beach of 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt, judicial officials said.

IS in Libya posted a video on the Internet in February 2015 of the beheadings, sparking international condemnation and Egyptian air strikes against militant targets in the neighbouring Arab state.

Of the seven defendants, three were sentenced to death in absentia, the officials said.

An unspecified number of those condemned were accused of having taken beheadings.

Death sentences in Egypt are subject to review by the country’s mufti as the official interpreter of Islamic law, although his verdict is not legally binding.

Prosecutors accused the seven suspects of membership of an IS cell in Marsa Matruh, northwest Egypt, and of planning attacks after having received military training at militant camps in Libya and Syria. Verdicts are to be issued on November 25 against 13 others on trial in the same case. part in the