Cairo - A Cairo military court yesterday condemned to death nine of the militant Islamist movement's top leaders, Siona Jenkins reports. The sentences marked the end of Egypt's largest trial of Islamist militants since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, with 107 defendants, almost all of whom were charged with belonging to the banned Jihad (Holy War) organisation, as well as a variety of other offences.
Eleven of the accused received life terms, 20 were acquitted and the remainder received sentences ranging from seven to 15 years in jail with hard labour.
Sixty of the alleged militants, including the nine sentenced to death, were tried in absentia and included several of the most famous names in the world of Egypt's militants.
