Egypt: 26 sentenced to death over Suez 'terror plot'

Judges accused the defendants of inciting violence against the army and police

 

An Egyptian court has sentenced 26 people to death for founding a "terror group" with the aim of attacking ships using the Suez Canal.

Judges said the men were also accused of manufacturing missiles and explosives, local media report.

The defendants were tried in absentia, Reuters news agency says.

The sentencing comes a day after the new Prime Minister designate, Ibrahim Mahlab, vowed he would "crush terrorism in all the corners of the country".

Mr Mahlab has been put in charge of forming a new government following Monday's surprise resignation of interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi and his cabinet.

Mr Beblawi was appointed in July 2013 after the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in the wake of mass protests.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed and thousands of others detained in a crackdown by the security forces on the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement to which Mr Morsi belongs.

Militants based in the Sinai peninsula have meanwhile stepped up attacks on government, police and the armed forces, killing hundreds.
'Harmed unity'
In Wednesday's verdict, the court said the accused had harmed "national unity", inciting violence against the army, police, and Christians.

The case will now be referred to the mufti, Egypt's top Islamic official, who has to validate the sentence.

The final verdict is expected on 19 March.

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The real reason for soaring US oil prices inspite of a glut of crude oil sitting in a vast array of Oklahoma tank farms.

US Crude Oil Prices Surged 23% In The Past Three Months On Middle East Instability Plus New Access To US Oil Supplies Formerly 'Bottlenecked' In Oklahoma

David Kashi
on July 17 2013 3:23 PM

Traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, the benchmark U.S. crude, soared to $106.10 per barrel Wednesday, from about $86 in mid-April.
Part of the reason stems from unrest in Egypt as traders and market participants fear that civil strife in the biggest Arab country may bleed over to the Suez Canal, where 4 million barrels of oil pass every day, said Christopher Knittel, an energy economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
“Egypt made some players in the market very uneasy as to what might happen in the near future with supplies,” Knittel said.
The price for WTI, meanwhile, is influenced by its European counterpart, a crude known as Brent blend, which is the benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s traded crude and what Europe uses as its pricing standard. For that reason, the rise in price of Brent blend over worries about the Suez Canal have also lifted the price of WTI, Knittel said.



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