An Egyptian military court referred the cases of 36 defendants to the country’s top religious authority for approval of death sentences after they were found guilty of bomb three churches in different parts of the country over the past two years.
The defendants were charged with bombing a church in the capital, Cairo, one in the coastal province of Alexandria, and a third in the city of Tantaa, which is located in the province of Gharbiya. Twelve of the 48 defendants in the case were sentenced in absentia.
Forty-four persons were killed and 126 injured in the Alexandria and Gharbiya bombings in April last year.
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Several months earlier, in December 2016, another bombing took place in the Botroseya Church in the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral’s complex in Cairo. The bombing resulted in the killing of 29 persons, including the perpetrators, and the injury of tens of others.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the three attacks.