Egypt sentences two Mursi supporters to death

An Egyptian court on Saturday handed death sentences to two supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammad Mursi who were convicted of throwing youths off an apartment block roof, judicial sources said.

One youth had been killed after being thrown from a building in Alexandria in July last year, two days after Mursi’s ouster.

The court submitted its verdict for approval to the mufti, the government’s official interpreter of Islamic law, sources quoted by Agence France-Presse said.

The latest death sentences come in spite of international outrage at Egypt handing down the death penalty to 529 Islamists on Monday after only two hearings.

While the verdict can be appealed, the mufti has upheld death sentences in the past.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s foreign ministry announced that militants have killed 496 people since Mursi’s overthrow by the military last year.

A foreign minister “factsheet” sent to media outlets set that 252 police and 187 army personnel were killed in “terrorist” attacks, along with 57 civilians.

The majority of the attacks have taken place in the northern Sinai Peninsula and targeted policemen and soldiers.

The army has poured troops into the mountainous and underdeveloped region bordering the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Israel, to combat growing militancy.

Brazen attacks

But militants have also launched brazen attacks farther afield.

In mid-March, gunmen killed six soldiers at a checkpoint in Cairo.

Al-Qaeda-inspired group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) has claimed most of the deadliest attacks, including a car bombing at a police headquarters in Cairo, shooting down a military helicopter and the suicide bombing of a tourist bus in the Sinai.

The Sinai-based group said the attacks were in retaliation for the crackdown on Mursi supporters.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in the crackdown, according to rights group Amnesty International, while thousands have been jailed.

(With AFP)