Cairo – The Egyptian’s military, on Wednesday said that top militant leader Hesham Ashmawi had been executed, having being convicted of involvement in series of attacks on the country’s security forces.
An Egyptian Court sentenced Ashmawi, a dismissed army officer, and 36 other defendants, to death over terrorism-related charges.
In November, Ashmawi was sentenced by a military court to death by hanging in another terrorism case.
The armed forces spokesman, Tamer al-Refai, said Ashmawi was involved in 14 crimes, either by planning them or carrying them out.
The crimes include leading the militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which swore allegiance to Islamic State and now known as Welayet Sinai, or Sinai Province.
He was involved in planning a 2013 assassination attempt against Egypt’s former Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim.
The former militant leader also masterminded 2014 attack on a security checkpoint in the Farafra Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert, which left at least 22 soldiers dead.
He was also involved in the killing of officers and soldiers in attacks on military vehicles.
Ashmawi, a former special forces officer, had been expelled from the army in 2011, after inciting officers to reject orders.
Ashmawi was arrested in Libya’s Eastern city of Derna, a stronghold of Islamist militias, in late 2018, and handed over to Egyptian authorities in May 2019.
Egypt has seen a wave of militant attacks, mainly targeting the country’s security forces and Christian minority since the army’s 2013 overthrow of president Mohammed Morsi.
(dpa/NAN)
