6 people executed over involvement in Arab Sharkas terror cell

Six men were executed early Sunday over their indictment in the case known as "Arab Sharkas" terror cell, a reliable source at the Prisons Authority Sector said.

In statements to MENA, the source said the six men were executed at 5 am Cairo local time after their papers were referred to Egypt's Mufti to give his opinion.

Last October, a military court sentenced seven people to death for leading and being part of a cell affiliated with militant group Ansar Beit al Maqdes. One of the defendants was sentenced to death in absentia. The court also sentenced two more defendants to life in prison in the same case.

The military prosecution accused the defendants of planning and executing an armed attack on a bus transporting soldiers in Cairo’s Amiriya district on March 13, 2014, which resulted in the death of an Armed Forces seargent.

Two days later, another attack killed six soldiers at a military police checkpoint in the Musturud area, southern Cairo. On March 19, a brigadier and a colonel in the Armed Forces were killed when the Armed Forces raided an abandoned warehouse in Ezbet Arab Sharkas in Qalyubia, which gave the group the name “Arab Sharkas cell", and arrested the criminals.