_:n9e74b5da464f4620adbdb5939a0c15d4xb0
<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced 65 suspected ISIS extremist group members to between five years and life in prison for setting up a “terrorist cell”, a court official said.\nThe alleged cell had members in various parts of impoverished Upper Egypt and was led by an “emir” Mostafa Ahmed Abdelaal\nThe militants, charged in 2017, had “set up a terrorist cell in Upper Egypt which declared allegiance to (ISIS leader) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”, the court official said.\nThe court sentenced 18 of the defendants to life terms (25 years) and another 41 to 15-year prison terms. It also handed six minors five years each in jail and acquitted two suspects.\nThe sentences can be appealed.\nSince 2014, the government and security forces have cracked down hard on extremists.\nThe Egyptian branch of ISIS has led an insurgency in North Sinai and carried out attacks across the country.\nEgypts army launched a major offensive in February dubbed “Sinai 2018” to dislodge the insurgents from the peninsula.\nMore than 450 suspected extremists and around 30 Egyptian soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, the army said in October.\nExtremist attacks in recent years have killed hundreds of police, soldiers and civilians.\nISIS claimed responsibility for an attack last week against Egyptian Christians in Minya province, which killed six Copts and one Anglican.\nAn Egyptian military court on Wednesday sentenced eight ISIS members to death for a deadly attack against the army in 2016, officials said.\n \tSHOW MORE \t\t \t\t\t\n \t\t\t\tLast Update: Thursday, 8 November 2018 KSA 19:34 – GMT 16:34 \t\t\t\n "
<https://australianews.today/2018/11/08/egypt-court-jails-65-suspected-isis-extremists/>