April 18, 1999
Web posted at: 6:20 p.m. EDT (1840 GMT)

HAEKSTEP, Egypt (CNN) -- An Egyptian military court handed down the death sentence Sunday to nine of 107 defendants charged with belonging to militant insurgency groups.

"This is a bunch of evil people," the chairman of the four-judge panel said in passing sentence. "They are a gang of terrorists and saboteurs who planned to flood our peaceful nation with blood, darkness and injustice."

Eleven other defendants were sentenced to life in prison, while 20 were acquitted. The remainder received lesser sentences. At least 60 of the defendants -- including all nine condemned to death -- were tried in absentia.

Jihad leader Ayman Zawahri, said to be a close aide of Osama bin Laden, and his brother Mohammed were among those to receive death sentences. Both are believed to be in Afghanistan, where bin Laden -- suspected of involvement in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year -- has a secret base of operations.

Mohammed Islambouli, brother of former President Anwar Sadat's assassin Khaled Isambouli -- and the sole defendant from the insurgent Islamic Group -- was sentenced in his absence to 15 years with hard labor.

The Islamic Group -- Egypt's largest militant group -- was responsible for the November 1997 massacre of 62 people at Luxor in southern Egypt. The group's leaders last month endorsed a cease-fire called by jailed group leaders in July 1997.

The trial was the largest-ever prosecution of Islamic insurgents. Members of Jihad, which assassinated Sadat in 1981, have been fighting along with other militant groups to topple President Hosni Mubarak since 1992.

Defendants in the courtroom Sunday responded to the sentencing with cries of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and "This is an Islamic revolution against Jews and Americans."

Charges filed against the 107 defendants included criminal conspiracy, subversion, membership in an outlawed group, plotting to carry out attacks on officials and police, forgery and attempting to prevent security forces from carrying out their jobs.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) joined defense attorneys in criticizing the trial outcome. EOHR said that it observed a number of violations against the defendants.

Seventeen had been charged, the organization said, though "they were in arbitrary detention of years .. and some of them were even isolated from the outside world."

EOHR also said that civilians should not be tried in a military court, and claimed some of the defendants had been tortured.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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