A court in Egypt has upheld the death sentences of seven people accused of beheading 21 Christians in Libya in 2015.
10 other individuals were given life sentences for joining a terrorist group with links to the Islamic State. Three others were sentenced to 15 years in prison.
ISIS militants released a video in February 2015 showing the beheadings of the men on a Libyan beach. At the end of the footage the same English-speaking fighter raised his knife to the water and said ISIS would “conquer Rome”. Most of the victims were members of Egypt’s minority Christian community.
The seven suspects sentenced were also accused of belonging to an ISIS cell, and of planning more terror attacks.
More than 100 Egyptian Copts have died since December 2016 in several church bombings carried out by ISIS terrorists.
Saturday’s court ruling came a day after more than 300 people, mostly Muslims, were killed when terrorists opened fire on a mosque in Egypt’s restive Sinai peninsula.
Egypt’s president has ordered the military to use “all brute force necessary” to bring stability to the region within the next three months.
The ruling can still be appealed, according to sources.
Egypt has been battling an insurgency by an ISIS affiliate based in North Sinai since the military’s ouster in 2013 of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
Hundreds of members of Egypt’s security forces have been killed, while more than 100 Copts have died in church bombings since December.
CBN News Majorly contributed to this report.
