April 11
EGYPT:
Egypt military court refers 36 defendants to Mufti for death penalty
A military court has referred 36 defendants accused of taking part in deadly
church bombings to Egypt's top religious authority for consideration of the
death penalty, state television reported on Tuesday.
The defendants are suspected of involvement in bombings that hit 3 Coptic
churches - 1 at Cairo's Coptic Cathedral in December 2016 that killed at least
25, and 2 that hit churches in Alexandria and Tanta on the same day in April
2017 and killed more than 45 people.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for all 3 attacks.
Egypt requires that courts refer cases to the Grand Mufti for consideration of
the death penalty ahead of a final verdict although his decision is
non-binding.
The court is expected to issue a verdict on May 15 and 11 of the 36 are being
tried in absentia, a lawyer involved in the case told Reuters.
Public prosecutor Nabil Sadek said previously that some of the suspects held
leadership positions in Islamic State and formed cells in Cairo and the
southern province of Qena to carry out the church attacks.
Some of the defendants are also accused of carrying out an attack on a
checkpoint in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least eight policemen in
2017.
Egypt is facing a more than three-year-old insurgency led by Islamic State that
intensified after general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the
military in overthrowing Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass
protests against his rule.
(source: Reuters)
PAKISTAN:
PHC overturns death sentence in double murder
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has set aside death penalty awarded to a convict
by a subordinate court in a double murder case in Hangu district.
A division bench comprising Justice Qalandar Ali Khan and Justice Ishtiaq
Ibrahim accepted an appeal filed by the convict, Muhammad Zaman. It observed
that prosecution could not prove its case against the appellant and acquitted
him.
During arguments, Sahibzada Asadullah, counsel for the appellant, submitted
that the district court had acquitted 2 co-accused including Muhammad Hussain
and Maiser Ali in the double murder case, while awarded death sentence on 2
counts to the appellant in 2008.
He pointed out before the bench that there was no eyewitness to the case and
2nd 3 persons were charged and only the appellant was sentenced. The same
treatment should have been meted out to the appellant.
(source: thenews.com.pk)
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