CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s chief prosecutor on Monday referred 555 terror suspects to a military court on charges of joining a local affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist group. The suspects set up dozens of small militant cells and carried out a total of 63 attacks against army and police forces in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, prosecutor Nabil Sadek said in a statement. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Only 216 of the 555 suspects are in custody, the statement said. “The Giza Criminal Court sentenced nine individuals -- two of whom were tried in absentia -- to life in prison after convicting them of working for ISIL,” defense lawyer Ismail al-Rashidi told Anadolu Agency. “Three others were acquitted due to a lack of evidence,” the lawyer said, adding that Monday's sentences could still be appealed before the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appellate court. Egypt has been battling Islamic jihadists for years, but the insurgency gathered steam and grew deadlier after the 2013 ouster by the military, then led by President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi, of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president.
Egyptian chief prosecutor Nabil Sadek refers 555 ISIL suspects suspected of 63 terror attacks to a military court, while the Giza Criminal Court in Cairo sentences nine terrorists to life imprisonment and two others to five years imprisonment each.