Egyptian judges shot dead in Sinai hours after former president Mohamed
Morsi sentenced to death
LIZZIE DEARDEN Sunday 17 May 2015
Three Egyptian judges have been
shot dead hours after deposed former president Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to
death.
Police said the judges were
travelling in a car in the city of al-Arish, Sinai, when it was attacked by
suspected Islamist gunmen.
An fourth person was killed and
at least three more were injured in the assault.
It is unclear whether the attack
was linked to anger over the death sentence passed for Mr Morsi in Cairo but the Egyptian
government has blamed Muslim Brotherhood supporters for violence in Sinai in
the past.
Mr Morsi's party has been banned
and hundreds of its former officials and supporters have been arrested and
jailed.
The shootings came days after
another judge was the victim of an assassination attempt.
The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip Al-Arish is
just 30 miles from the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip
Moataz Khafagi, who sentenced 12 Muslim
Brotherhood members to death last year after convicting them of killing a
police general, survived bomb blasts outside his home in Cairo suburb that damaged several cars but
caused no casualties.
The Sinai
Peninsula has seen frequent outbreaks of violence in recent months
and terrorist attacks prompted the Egyptian government to declare a state of
emergency last year.
In January, an Isis-affiliated
group claimed responsibility for rocket and bomb attacks on the military and
police that killed at least 26 people.
The Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO) has raised concern about the deteriorating situation and advises
against all travel to North Sinai , where
al-Arish is situated. Al-Sisi launches three days of mourning following the two
attacks in the Sinai Peninsula
“Terrorists and criminals seek to
prevent the Egyptian authorities from exercising control,” a spokesperson said.
“There are regular bomb attacks
against government buildings, security forces and energy infrastructure.
“The al-Arish area has seen many
attacks, but the whole of the North Sinai
region is at risk.”
The Egyptian army are fighting
militants in the area and several hundred people are believed to have died in
battles since July 2013, when security forces were attacked by people angry at
the coup against Mr Morsi.
Sinai borders the Gaza strip and Egyptian
state prosecutors have claimed that Mr Morsi colluded with the Palestinian
Hamas group while his predecessor was being overthrown during the Arab Spring.
They alleged that during the
18-day uprising in 2011, militants passed through illegal tunnels between Gaza
and Sinai to enter Egypt and help hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters,
including Mr Morsi, escape jails in the capital in violent prison breaks.
Mr Morsi has also faced charges
relating to the killing and torture of protesters, passing state secrets to
Hamas, Hezbollah and Qatar ,
fraud and "insulting the judiciary". He has rejected the courts'
authority and his supporters say all the cases are politically motivated.
-----------------------------
Two judges shot dead after Morsi
death sentence
Publish Date: May 17, 2015 newvision
GUNMEN killed two Egyptian judges
and a prosecutor Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula ,
where security forces are battling an Islamist insurgency spearheaded by an
Islamic State group affiliate, officials said.
The shooting in North Sinai 's provincial capital El-Arish also killed the
officials' driver and wounded another prosecutor, the health ministry said.
Police initially said three judges were killed in the attack that came hours
after a court in Cairo
sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death for his role in a mass
jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.
Some of Morsi's fellow defendants included
jihadists in Sinai, where militants often attack members of the security
forces.
Police said the officials came under attack while being driven to a
court hearing in El-Arish.
Health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told
AFP four people were killed.
"Two judges, a prosecutor and the driver of
the car were killed, while another prosecutor was wounded," he said.
Following the attack, the first of its kind in Sinai, the interior ministry put
police on high alert across the country and suspended all leave, a ministry
official said.
The justice ministry also decided to move, starting on Sunday,
some court hearings in El-Arish to Ismailiya "to protect the judges",
a ministry official said.
AFP
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