Egypt sentences 2 to death for fatal drive-by theft
Court refers ruling to country’s mufti in high-profile case
Cairo: An Egyptian court Wednesday sentenced two local men to death after convicting them of having dragged a young woman to death following a drive-by theft, a case that has triggered massive outrage in the nation.
The Cairo Criminal Court said it will refer the preliminary ruling to the republic’s mufti, Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, for approval, a legal procedure in the country in cases involving death sentences. The court said it will issue a final verdict on December 30.
Wednesday’s ruling was pronounced a month after the trial started amid prominent media coverage.
In reaction to the ruling, the family of the 24-year-old victim erupted in cheers amid tears, witnesses said. “Al Hamdulillah! [Thank God],” her father commented in the courtroom.
The victim identified as Mariam Mohammed was walking last month on a street in the Cairo southern quarter of Maadi where a person sitting next to a driver of a speeding minibus tried to snatch her bag, eyewitnesses said.
The girl clung to her bag as the vehicle sped off, lost her balance, her head crashed into the front of a parked car and she was run over by the minibus of the two defendants, the witnesses added.
They reportedly confessed at the court to have killed the woman under the wheels of the vehicle after stealing her bag in which they found 85 Egyptian pounds (Dh19.9) and some make-up tools.