Cairo criminal court has reached a final verdict of the death penalty for three and punished a fourth defendant with ten years in jail on charges of spying for Al-Qaeda between 2008 and 2013.
The sentences were based on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda and providing them with details concerning Egyptian army.
They were also charged with forming a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda that aims to threaten the freedom of Egyptian citizens, orchestrating attacks on the US and French embassies, and executing terrorist attacks in the Sinai Peninsula.
The four defendants are between 22 and 33 years old.
The three defendants who received capital punishment were tried in absentia.
The court had reached on 12 January an initial verdict of the death penalty for all four defendants before sending the rulings it to the Grand Mufti for review.
Egyptian courts have meted out in the last few months death penalty verdicts to hundreds of Islamists in cases in which defendants were accused of committing murder and other violent acts during attacks on security personnel that followed the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
In some of these cases, judges ruled with mass death sentences against defendants.
