Seven sentenced to death for 2013 Rafah massacre

Cairo Criminal Court ratified seven death sentences, as well as lengthy prison sentences for 25 others, after finding the defendants guilty of killing troops in the North Sinai town of Rafah last year.

The high-profile case has seen several men, thought to be armed jihadis, sentenced to death for violence against Egyptian security forces.

The most prominent defendant amongst those sentenced on Saturday is Adel Habara, whom authorities accuse of being the mastermind behind the execution-style shootings of police conscripts in Rafah on August 19, 2013.

Death sentences issued against Habara and six of his co-defendants were upheld by Egypt’s grand mufti, while three were sentenced to life imprisonment, 22 others sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, and three defendants acquitted.

From these 35 defendants, only Habara and 18 others were present at Saturday’s court session. Sixteen other defendants were tried in absentia, according to Reuters news agency.

Habara and the six others sentenced to hang had received their original sentences on October 14, yet they were referred to the grand mufti for review and approval, a non-binding but necessary procedure in Egypt.

Judicial sources cited in state-owned news website Al-Ahram confirmed that the sentences may be appealed.

The court had charged the defendants with “adopting the idea of the Al-Qaeda network, declaring Egypt’s rulers to be infidels, and leading assassinations against both the military and police.”

Speaking from the defendants' cage in online videos, the bearded Habara has repeatedly denied the charges leveled against him.

Habara and his associates are accused of staging an ambush on a bus transporting Central Security Forces (riot police) troops just five days after the forced dispersal of two protest camps, containing supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, in Cairo and Giza, which left hundreds of protesters dead.

The attack on the police conscripts on August 19, 2013 has become known as the “Second Rafah Massacre.”

The “First Rafah Massacre” was carried out on August 5, 2012 by armed assailants who killed 16 army troops and then commandeered two armored personnel carriers, reportedly used in an attempted attack on the Israeli border.

Hundreds of security forces, militants and civilians have been killed in armed confrontations in the restive region of North Sinai over the past three years.