An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced 24 Muslim Brotherhood members to death over their alleged involvement in two diverse terrorist attacks that resulted in the death of 4 police officers.

The news of these convictions was released in the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper.  The first of the two convictions, both of which have been delivered by the Damanhur Criminal Court, is linked with the bombing of a police bus in the Beheira governorate back in 2015. The bombing was reported to have resulted in the death of 3 police officers, with several others wounded.

Correspondingly, 16 people affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group were indicted with following a banned militant group, funding a terrorist group, murder, and attempted murder. Ultimately, the criminal court convicted them of the charges and sentenced them to death.

The second set of the death sentences were similarly issued against eight other people associated with the Brotherhood for their alleged involvement in the murder of a police officer back in 2014.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a regio-political movement that advocates for the application of Islamic law in all spheres of society. The movement was however outlawed in Egypt in 2013 after a court granted an injunction dissolving the brotherhood and confiscating its assets.

These recent convictions are a testament to the regularity of the death penalty in Egypt. For the year 2020 alone, statistics released by Amnesty International revealed Egypt as the third leading country in the world with the most known executions. The same statistics showed that executions in Egypt had more than tripled for the same period.

The two sets of sentences issued against the 24 are first-degree and can be appealed.