An Egyptian court referred the cases of 37 defendants who received death sentences, including former special forces officer Hisham al-Ashmawy, to Egypt’s top religious authority for a non-binding opinion on whether they can be executed on terrorism-related charges.
Customarily all death sentences in Egypt are sent to the Grand Mufti for his office’s advice on whether the ruling is consistent with religious law.
They are among more than 200 defendants accused of carrying out more than 50 militant attacks that included killing high-ranking police officers and bombings that targeted the Egyptian capital’s police headquarters.
The charges also include a 2013 assassination attempt on the Egyptian interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim.
The ruling on the sentencing is set for March 2. The presiding judge may decide independently of the Mufti.
Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer, was apprehended in the Libyan city of Derna late in 2018 by forces loyal to Libyan National Army Commander Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
A military court sentenced him to death in November for his participation in scores of attacks on government targets.
He has been long sought by Cairo on charges of orchestrating a deadly desert ambush on police and other high-profile attacks.
Egyptian authorities say Ashmawy heads the Ansar al-Islam network, which claimed responsibility for an ambush against police in Egypt’s the Western Desert in 2017.
Ashmawy has been convicted in absentia to death for attacks in Egypt, including a 2014 raid in which 22 Egyptian military border guards were killed near the frontier with Libya.
Before fleeing to Libya, he helped found Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a terrorist organization based in northern Sinai.
His military expertise had helped transform the tiny group into a well-organized guerrilla band that later inflicted painful blows against security forces in Sinai.
He was transferred to Egypt from eastern Libya in a military aircraft in May along with two other wanted militants.
