Egypt hangs five prisoners: Officials

CAIRO – Agence France-Presse

Egyptian prison authorities executed on Jan. 2 five inmates who had been sentenced to death, four of them over a bombing that killed military cadets, security officials said.

The hangings came days after the execution of 15 inmates convicted of attacking police and the military in the largest mass execution in Egypt in recent memory.

Four of those executed on Jan. 2 had been sentenced to death by a military court over a 2015 the bombing at a stadium north of Cairo that killed three military cadets.

The fifth had been sentenced to death over a criminal matter, the sources said without elaborating.

The other four had been accused of having links with the Muslim Brotherhood movement of former president Mohamed Morsi whom the army toppled in 2013 following protests against his single year in office.

On Dec. 26, prison authorities hanged 15 inmates sentenced to death by a military court over attacks on the police and military in the Sinai Peninsula.

Attacks by jihadists in the restive peninsula have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi’s overthrow.

Courts have since sentenced hundreds of Islamists to death, although most have appealed the rulings and won retrials.