Egyptian court upholds death sentences for 2011 Sinai attacks

09/24/12: Al Jazeera reports an Egyptian court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya has upheld the sentence of fourteen ultra-conservative fighters to death by hanging, and four others to life imprisonment, over the killing of seven people in the Sinai Peninsula last year.  The country’s top cleric had approved the death sentences, as is customary.  Six men will be hanged, while the eight others were convicted in absentia for the attacks on a bank and police station.  The Islamist men, who belong to a group called Tawheed wal Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War), were charged by the prosecutor with murdering members of the army, police and a civilian in el-Arish in June and July 2011.  The original sentencing of the fighters occurred on August 14.