Egypt to raise punishment for possessing explosives up to execution

CAIRO, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian parliament approved on Tuesday a new draft law raising the punishment of possessing explosives up to execution when used in terrorist attacks, the parliament said in a statement.

"Life imprisonment shall be the penalty inflicted on whoever possesses explosives, obtains, makes or imports them before obtaining a license therefor, and the penalty shall be up to capital punishment if the explosives are used in a crime committed for a terrorist purpose," said the approved amendment of Article 102 A of Egypt's Penal Code.

According to the draft law, those who possess material used for making explosives and those who know about the aforementioned crimes and cover them will be handed up to life imprisonment, which is a 25-year jail term in the Egyptian law.

"Under the draft law, buildings and properties used in these crimes are to be seized if they are owned by the perpetrators," the parliament said.

The draft law has been approved while the country is launching a massive anti-terrorist campaign named "Sinai 2018" that has killed at least 105 terrorists, detected and defused about 500 explosive devices and destroyed more than 1,400 terrorist hideouts and weapon storehouses since it started on Feb. 9.

Egypt's North Sinai province, bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, has been the center of terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests.

Attacks later expanded to reach several other provinces including the capital Cairo and started to target the Coptic minority via church bombings and shootings.

The terrorists did not stop at targeting security men and Copts, as they further targeted a mosque in North Sinai's Arish city last November, killing at least 310 Muslim worshippers and injuring more than 120 others, which marks the deadliest terror attack and the first against a mosque in Egypt's modern history.

The Sinai-based branch of the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group claimed responsibility for most of the terror operations in Egypt over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian forces killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster. Enditem