Egypt sends 439 to military trials over violence

CAIRO: Egypt’s top prosecutor referred 439 people to military tribunals on Saturday for acts of violence including the killing of three policemen last year. Security officials said that one group was 139 men he described as hard-liners from the southern province of Minya, while another was comprised of 300 from the Nile Delta province of Beheira. The cases involve last year’s wave of violence that came in retaliation to a bloody police dispersal of a sit-in. In October, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi ordered the military to join forces with police in guarding vital state institutions. The decree stipulated that perpetrators of any attacks against state facilities would be tried in front of military tribunals. Human Rights Watch said Egypt’s military courts “lack even the shaky due process guarantees provided by regular courts.” Earlier this month, 188 people were sentenced to death on charges of killing 11 policemen. Meanwhile, gunmen killed two Egyptian policemen in a drive-by shooting in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, security and medical officials said. The attack occurred near a police post in the town of El-Arish, scene of frequent attacks by radical militants on security forces, as the two policemen made their way to work. Egypt’s military has been battling an insurgency on the peninsula since it overthrew President Muhammad Mursi last year and cracked down on his supporters. The government declared a state of emergency in parts of North Sinai after an Oct. 24 suicide attack near El-Arish killed 30 soldiers. Militant groups claim their attacks are in retaliation for a government crackdown targeting Mursi’s supporters that has left hundreds dead and thousands jailed. AFP