Cairo: An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced an Islamist to death by hanging and eight others to life in prison on charges of setting up a hardline group targeting the country’s Christian minority, legal sources said.
The Cairo Criminal Court also handed down 11 co-defendants 15 years in prison each in the same case, the sources added.
The defendants were also charged with seeking to overthrow the government and assaulting police.
Sixteen of the convicts were tried in absentia.
All the rulings are subjected to appeal.
The case is related to a deadly attack on a jewellery shop owned by a Christian man in May 2008.
The shop owner and three Christian workers were killed in the attack in the area of Al Zaytoun in north-eastern Cairo.
Christians make up around 10 per cent of Egypt’s mostly Muslim population of 91 million.
They long complained about attacks by extremist Islamists.
However, Egypt’s Christians have felt largely secure since the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi following street protests against his rule in mid-2013.
Christians staunchly support incumbent Muslim President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, who led the army’s ouster of Mursi.
Hundreds of Islamists have been rounded up and got varying jail sentences since Mursi’s toppling.
