Egypt Court Sentences 8 Muslims to Death
A military court Thursday sentenced eight Muslim militants to death in Egypt’s strongest response so far to a violent campaign by fundamentalists to turn the country into an Islamic state.
The trials in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria marked the first test of an anti-terrorist law enacted last summer to counter the rise in extremist violence, which has killed 77 people and wounded more than 120 this year.
The legislation empowers judges to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment on those convicted of planning terrorist acts, even acts that are not carried out.
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