Court to rule on tourists' deaths
2007-08-20 11:02
Cairo - An Egyptian court is due to sentence 14 people on Monday for their role in a string of attacks in 2005, including a bombing that killed three foreign tourists in one of Cairo's bustling bazaars.
The accused, 12 men and two women, could face the death penalty for the April 7 2005 attack in Cairo's Al-Azhar bazaar district, which killed two French nationals and a US citizen and wounded 11 other tourists.
The 14 were accused of belonging to an illegal group, of using force and violence to disturb public order and threaten the security of the state, and of possession of weapons intended for use in terrorist operations.
The attack was the first on foreigners in the capital in seven years and was seen as targeting the Egyptian economy, which was heavily dependent on tourism and had been severely hit by previous attacks.
Fiancee shot dead
On April 30, a man wanted in connection with the first bombing exploded a device while being chased by police in downtown Cairo, killing himself and wounding seven people - four foreigners and three Egyptians.
Less than an hour later, two women died while carrying out an abortive shooting attack on a tourist bus near the Citadel, another popular tourist attraction.
It emerged that the two women were the sister and fiancee of the dead suspect. After police opened fire, the sister shot dead his fiancee before turning the gun on herself.
The suspected mastermind of the attacks, Ashraf Said Yusef, had been captured the day before after throwing himself out of an apartment window in a bid to escape police.
He died in police custody days later from what police said were self-inflicted injuries.
Egypt had also been hit by a string of bombings in recent years targeting tourists in popular resorts on the Red Sea coast of the Sinai peninsula.