21 people sentenced to death for terror offences in Egypt

A court in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, has sentenced 21 people to death for terror offences, with the approval of the country's most senior Muslim cleric.  

They were found guilty of joining a terrorist group, targeting public and private facilities and plotting to assassinate military and police personnel and some were even tried in absentia.  

Local news reports say the defendants were accused of plotting in 2015 to blow up a police station in the coastal city of Damietta and gas pipelines in a nearby village. The final sentence was passed after the court's initial recommendation was approved by Egypt's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Shawki Allam, the country's most senior religious authority.