AN Egyptian court has sentenced 26 people to death for forming a terrorist group and planning attacks on the Suez Canal.
All defendants but one were tried in absentia at Cairo Criminal Court. Prosecutors charged the group with planning attacks on ships on the canal last year, security buildings, foreign tourists and police.
An al Qaeda-inspired group has claimed responsibility for a rocket-propelled grenade attack targeting the canal last year.
In 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced 14 militants to death on charges related to attacks on police and civilians in the volatile Sinai Peninsula in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising.
Eight are in prison while the rest were tried in absentia. They allegedly belonged to the extremist Tawheed and Jihad group.
Meanwhie, Egyptian army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al Sisi is to keep his post as defence minister in a new government for now.
The move quashes speculation he was about to announce a bid for the presidency. Mr Sisi is tipped to win the upcoming presidential election but has yet to announce his candidacy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article