CAIRO: A senior Egyptian army officer was shot dead outside his home in a Cairo suburb on Saturday, a military official and a relative told AFP.

Militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, mostly in the Sinai Peninsula, but such attacks on senior officers are rare.

Brigadier General Adel Ragaei, who commanded an armoured division deployed in the Sinai, died in a hail of bullets as he left his home in the Obour City suburb, sister-in-law Huda Zein Elabedine told AFP.

A little-known group called Liwa al-Thawra claimed the attack, in a message posted on Twitter.

“At 6am (0400 GMT) they killed him. I can’t tell you if it was six or twelve bullets. It was before he could get into his car,” Elabedine said.

A military official told AFP that the officer has been “martyred.” He did not provide further details.

Liwa al-Thawra said a “group of our fighters” shot the officer in the head and made off with his weapon. The claim could not be independently verified.

The apparently Islamist group had previously claimed responsibility for an attack on a police checkpoint in August, posting footage of the shooting on the internet.

Jihadists loyal to the IS are waging a deadly insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Morsi receives first final prison sentence

An appeals court upheld on Saturday a 20-year sentence for ousted president Mohamed Morsi, the first final ruling in a string of trials for the deposed Islamist leader.

The court of cassation also upheld sentences against eight of his co-defendants, including seven who received the same prison term and one who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, a judicial official said.

Morsi had been convicted in April 2015 of involvement in deadly clashes outside the presidential palace during his year in power.

His supporters and protesters had clashed after he issued a decree that placed his decisions beyond judicial review, sparking anger that culminated in mass protests against him in June and July 2013.

The military deposed him on July 3 that year, and he has faced several trials since.

His lawyers are appealing a death sentence in one of his trials, on charges of participating in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt’s first freely elected civilian president, Morsi came to power after Mubarak’s overthrow.

Morsi’s lawyer, Abdel–moneim Abdel Maqsud, said none of the defendants attended Saturday’s court session, with only the lawyers present.

Four other co-defendants were initially sentenced in absentia and could not appeal the ruling.

Amnesty International denounced the initial trial as a “travesty of justice”.

Morsi was toppled by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.

Morsi’s Muslim Brother–hood has been blacklisted and targeted in a crackdown that has killed hundreds of his supporters and jailed thousands.

Published in Dawn October 23rd, 2016

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