EGYPT: COURT OF CASSATION COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY AGAINST SIX IN 2016 TERRORIST ATTACK NEAR PYRAMIDS
January 10, 2022: Egypt’s Court of Cassation on 2 January 2022 commuted the death penalty against six defendants charged with being involved in a terrorist attack on the Three Pyramids Hotel in Giza in 2016. According to the court's new ruling, the capital punishment was commuted to a harsh ten-year prison sentence while the life sentence given to eight others was commuted to a five-year prison term. It also acquitted 12 other defendants after overturning their sentence in the same case. The verdict comes nearly two years after a Giza Criminal Court sentenced the six defendants in 2019 to death. The attack in question was orchestrated on a tourist bus outside the hotel that did not result in any casualties. The attempt, however, was claimed by Islamic State affiliate Ansar Beit Al-Maqdes nonetheless. The Ministry of Interior said the attack, which involved a group of people hurling fireworks, was aimed at security forces guarding the hotel. (Source: Ahram, Egypt Today, 03/01/2021)
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