An Egyptian court has been reported to have sentenced 37 people to jail terms and life imprisonment respectively for either joining or supporting terrorist outfit affiliated to the Islamic State (ISIS).
According to Egyptian judicial sources, a Cairo criminal court sentenced eight defendants to life terms and 29 to terms ranging from one to 15 years.
The prosecutors accused them of planning attacks, promoting the ISIS ideology in prisons and financing its cells.
Terrorists have been carrying out anti-government activities and conducting fatal attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil in Egypt that erupted after the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted in a military coup in July 2013.
The terrorist outfit, Velayat Sinai terror group, pledged allegiance to ISIS (Daesh) in 2014, and has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks across Egypt, particularly those in the restive Sinai region, where the group is based.
The ISIS affiliated terrorist outfit has expanded its attacks targeting members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community as well as foreigners visiting the country, prompting Cairo to widen a controversial crackdown to the group.
