6 sentenced to death over forming 'Kerdasa committee' terror cell

CAIRO – 19 August 2019: Giza Criminal Court handed down on Monday a death penalty to six people over founding a terrorist group that aimed to disrupt the constitution and killing three persons including a policeman.

The court acquitted 14 others of all charges.

The documents of the defendants in the case known as “Kerdasa Public Resistance Committee,” were referred to the Grand Mufti in May to seek his non-binding opinion over sentencing the defendants to death.

The defendants also face charges of possessing weapons and ammunition without a license.

The public prosecutor charged the defendants with forming a terrorist group in 2013 near Kerdasa police station to disrupt the provisions of the Constitution and the law and prevent state institutions from performing their duties.

Also, 41 defendants in the case were sentenced to life (25 years in prison) including 28 in absentia, and seven defendants were handed a 15 year-imprisonment sentence.

A juvenile in the case was sentenced to three years in prison.

Since 2013, Egypt has witnessed numerous terrorist attacks, mainly by the Islamic State-affiliated Sinai Province militant group, causing the death of hundreds of policemen, army troops and civilians during attacks on security checkpoints, churches and recently a mosque.

The year 2013 marks the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi and the death of dozens of policemen and hundreds of Morsi supporters during the dispersal of pro-Morsi protests in Al-Nahda and Rabaa Al-Adaweya squares. The two parties hold each other responsible for the violence.

In February 2018, under the title "Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018", Egypt's Armed Forces launched a comprehensive military operation targeting the hotbeds of terrorists especially in Northern and Central Sinai. Despite announcing the death of dozens of terrorists from time to time since then, the army has not yet announced the end of the battle.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi who has announced war against terrorism even before he assumed post as president in 2014, said in May that the "war against terrorism did not and will not end before we retaliate for every martyr who died for the sake of their homeland."