Cairo court sentences six ISIS-affiliated militants to death

Another convicted member of the 'Heliopolis cell' is given life imprisonment

Smoke rises in the northern Sinai Peninsula as seen from the Egyptian border on July 1, 2015. Reuters

A Cairo terrorism court on Sunday sentenced six men to death by hanging, and another to life imprisonment, for their involvement in a terrorist cell affiliated with the Egyptian branch of ISIS.

Five of the men were referred to the country’s Grand Mufti in November for approval of their executions, a necessary legal procedure.

Their sentencing was postponed to late December and again to Sunday.

Two were charged with forming a terrorist unit known as the Heliopolis cell, an ISIS-affiliated local group that between 2014 and 2021 operated in Cairo, Giza and Luxor, court officials said.

They were charged with leading the organisation. State prosecutors accused them of forming it to incite public disorder, compromise national security and endanger the Egyptian people.

The other men were accused of joining the group with full knowledge of its intention to commit terrorist acts and incite disorder.

State prosecutors told state media that two of the men had served as leaders in the Sinai Province branch of the ISIS, which continues to operate north of the Sinai Peninsula.

All of the defendants were convicted of funding terrorism through their continued dealing with the Sinai group, which prosecutors said repeatedly received weapons, funds and other supplies from the Heliopolis cell.

On New Year's Eve, three Egyptian police officers were killed by two gunmen in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. The attack was claimed the next day by ISIS.