Egypt sentences man to death over Islamic State church attack

CAIRO — An Egyptian man has been sentenced to death by hanging for a deadly attack on a Cairo church in 2017 claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, a judicial source says.

Ten people including a police officer were killed as the assailant targeted the Saint Mina Coptic church in Helwan, on the southern outskirts of Cairo.

According to the authorities, the attacker was armed with an assault rifle, ammunition and a bomb he intended to detonate at the church.

A Cairo criminal court sentences the man for “murdering nine Copts and a policeman, possessing weapons and forming a terrorist group linked to IS,” the source says.

A second man, who is on the run, is sentenced to death in absentia, the source adds.

Two others are sentenced in absentia to life in prison, four receive 10-year terms and two are given three years each in prison. Another defendant is acquitted.

All of those convicted have the possibility to appeal.

Coptic Christians, who account for around 10 percent of Egypt’s population, have been targeted in a string of attacks by IS in recent years that have left more than 100 dead

— AFP