His deputy, Emad Abdel Hamid, was killed in a retaliatory airstrike in Egypt's Western Desert later that month.[24] Ashmawy, under the nickname "Abu Mohannad", was sentenced to death in absentia by a military court on 27 December 2017, along with ten other defendants, for various terrorism-related charges as part of a case called Ansar Bait al-Maqdis 3 by local media.[25] When he was arrested the following year, Egyptian media credited him with 17 attacks, including the Barakat assassination, the 2015 Italian Consulate bombing, the Minya bus attack and the Bahariya attack, among others.[26] "Every major attack, he either has been behind it or has been blamed for it," according to Gold.[23] He became one of Egypt's most wanted militants prior to his arrest.[27]