Egyptian court rejects appeal by Islamist militant Adel Habara over death sentence

Reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Court of Cassation rejected an appeal made by prominent Islamist militant Adel Habara over his death sentence, judicial sources said on Saturday. Habara has been convicted in 2014 of killing 25 army conscripts in North Sinai in August 2013, near the border with Israel. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is facing an Islamist insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula adjoining Israel and the Gaza Strip. Violence there intensified after Sisi, as army chief, engineered the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in mid-2013. (Reporting by Haitham Ahmed and Mohamed Abdella, writing by Asma Alsharif, editing by Louise Heavens)