High-Profile Jihadist Ashmawi Among 37 Terrorists Sentenced to Death in Egypt - Reports

CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2020) The Cairo Criminal Court on Monday sentenced to death 37 militants of the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis terrorist group (banned in Russia), including one of the country's most high-profile jihadists, Hisham Ashmawy, media reported.

The verdicts were previously approved by the country's mufti in accordance with national law.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, the terrorists have been convicted of carrying out dozens of attacks targeting high-ranking police officers, law enforcement headquarters and mosques, and perpetrating a 2013 assassination attempt on a former interior minister.

In a separate trial in November, a military court sentenced Ashmawy to death by hanging.

Ashmawy, a former serviceman of the Egyptian armed forces, was arrested by the Libyan National Army (LNA) in October 2018 during LNA commander Khalifa Haftar's campaign to seize the eastern Libyan city of Derna. He was extradited to Cairo in late May 2019.

Ashmawy is believed to have been involved in the assassination of Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat in July 2015, the Bahariya Oasis attack in October 2017 which left between 16 and 54 security personnel dead and other crimes.