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Reuters
CAIRO
An Egyptian military court sentenced 17 people to death on Thursday for their involvement in bombing attacks on three churches and a police checkpoint in 2016 and 2017 that killed more than 80 people, the state news agency MENA reported.
Nineteen others were handed life prison terms for the attacks, which hit churches in Cairo, the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta, MENA said.
The sentences are subject to appeal. Reuters was not immediately able to determine whether the accused had entered pleas, or to reach their lawyers. Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, which makes up an estimated 10 percent of the population, has been a frequent target of attacks and persecution since the uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the Alexandria and Tanta bombings, both of which were suicide attacks on Palm Sunday in April 2017 and left a total of 45 people dead.
The group also claimed responsibility for a December 2016 attack on a chapel adjoining St Mark's, Cairo's main cathedral, that left 28 dead.
The cathedral is the seat of Coptic Pope Tawadros II and its security is normally tight.
