A court in Egypt has sentenced 65 individuals to different prison terms ranging from five years to life for having allegiance to ISIS and for setting up a terror cell in the country. The alleged cell had members in various parts of impoverished upper Egypt and was led by an “emir” Mostafa Ahmed Abdelaal.
The militants, charged in 2017, had set up a terrorist cell in Upper Egypt which declared allegiance to (IS leader) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The court sentenced 18 of the defendants to life terms (25 years) and another 41 to 15-year prison terms and handed six minors five years each in jail while acquitted two suspects.
The Egyptian branch of Daesh has led an insurgency in North Sinai and carried out attacks across the country. Egypt’s army launched a major offensive in February dubbed “Sinai 2018” to dislodge the insurgents from the peninsula where more than 450 suspected extremists have been killed.
