Update: Egypt's court sentences 13 terrorists to death

CAIRO, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Giza Criminal Court ordered on Thursday the execution of 13 convicts from a disbanded militant group over charges of launching terrorist attacks against security forces, official MENA news agency reported.

The 13 defendants belong to a militant group referring to itself as Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt), which is charged with installing explosive devices, targeting various venues including checkpoints, police stations, vital institutions and public properties as well as murdering policemen and citizens.

On Oct. 8, Giza Criminal Court referred the files of the 13 defendants to the country's highest religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for his non-binding Islamic legal opinion on their execution.

The case started in July 2014 with 20 defendants and it gradually included 44 defendants in total.

As for the other 31 defendants, 17 of them were sentenced to 25 years in jail, one defendant to 15 years, one minor defendant to 15 years, seven defendants to five years and five defendants were acquitted.

Thursday's execution verdict comes about two weeks after a terrorist attack against a mosque in North Sinai killed at least 310 Muslim worshippers and wounded over 120 others, which is the deadliest terror operation and the first against a Muslim mosque in Egypt's modern history.

Egypt has been fighting against a wave of terror activities that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military toppled former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood group.

Terror attacks in Egypt focused on targeting police and military men in North Sinai before spreading nationwide and targeting the Coptic minority as well, with most of them claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group.

Ajnad Misr pledged allegiance to the IS in 2014, a year before its founder was killed as announced by the Egyptian police in April 2015.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian military and police have killed hundreds of militants and arrested a similar number of suspects as part of the country's anti-terror war declared by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's removal. Enditem