A security court in Cairo has issued death sentences on three Islamic militants convicted of killing a large number of Egyptian policemen in attacks carried out five years ago. The men, two of whom were sentenced in absentia, are members of the same faction which carried out the massacre at a temple in Luxor in November, in which nearly 60 foreign tourists were killed. Our Middle East correspondent Jim Muir reports:

The three convicted men are from a group of more than thirty members of the Gama'at al-Islamiya who are on trial for carrying out a series of attacks in upper Egypt in 1992 and 93, in which more than 20 Egyptian police officers were killed.

Only one of the three condemned men was in court to hear the sentence pronounced. His response was to chant 'Allah Akhbar' -- god is greatest. The sentences meted out by the military and security courts are not subject to appeal.

The authorities have pressed ahead with such trials of Islamic militants, despite an offer from jailed leaders of the radical movement to call off the violence and engage in dialogue. In a recent interview, President Hosni Mubarak again ruled out any such dialogue with the militants.

Relatives of the convicted men wait outside the court

He said they were simply agents being manipulated from outside the country. Again, he accused Britain in particular of providing sanctuary for a number of Islamic radical leaders who, he said, were left free to raise funds and plot terrorist attacks. Mr Mubarak said that new stringent security measures had been put in place in the wake of the Luxor tourist massacre, although he said no country in the world could ensure 100% security.

Police have now identified all but one of the six members of the Gamaa al-Islamiyya who carried out the Luxor attack, and were themselves killed. All of those identified were young students from parts of upper Egypt, where radical Islamic sentiment is strong.
 

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