Egypt: 14 get death sentences for Sinai attacks

Associated Press + More

By AYA BATRAWY, Associated Press




The June 2011 attack against el-Arish's main police station and a nearby bank killed a civilian and a number of police and military officers. The group was also found guilty of storming el-Arish's police station and of smashing statues of former President Anwar Sadat who was assassinated in 1981 after signing Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

El-Tawhid wi el-Jihad is part of a larger fringe trend in northern Sinai known as Takfir wil-Hijra. The movement's members, dubbed "Takfiris", lead secretive, isolated lives where anything and anyone that does not adhere to their rigid interpretation of Islam is deemed heretical — including the government and its security forces. Takfir wil-Hijra's leader was executed under Sadat in 1978.

The court issued its final verdict Monday after Egypt's top religious cleric approved the executions, as is customary for death sentences under the nation's legal system.


Extremist militants operate in disparate groups in the Sinai Peninsula and are believed to have grown in numbers since last year's political upheaval following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, largely due to a negligible police presence in the area. The volatile region, which links Egypt's borders with the Gaza Strip and Israel, has become increasingly lawless over the past year.

