Imprisoned Islamist militant Adel Habara was executed Thursday morning, following the Cassation Court's upholding of his death sentence, state media reported. According to Al-Ahram, his body was transferred to the Zeinhom mortuary. The execution was approved by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and the justice minister. Habara received several death penalties in different cases. According to Al-Ahram, he was mainly punished because of the "Rafah massacre." Habara was convicted in the "second Rafah massacre" of August 2013, killing 25 police conscripts in an ambush on a police convoy in the Abu Tawila region, along the Al-Arish-Rafah Road in Sinai, for which he was sentenced to death. A copy of the court's reasoning behind the verdict published by Al-Ahram said that authorised recordings of Habara's phone calls revealed that he formed a cell that later pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS). The court said Habara not only admitted in those recordings that he killed the police conscripts, but also "rejoiced their murder," Al-Ahram reported. In December 2015, Habara was sentenced to death by the Zagazig Criminal Court on charges of forming a takfiri group, communicating with IS militant group and targeting police officers and army personnel. On Monday, the Cassation Court upheld the death sentence for Habara on charges of killing a police officer in 2012 in Sharqeya. Habara, also known as Adel Mohamed Ibrahim, was arrested in August 2013 while hiding in North Sinai's Al-Arish city. In June 2014, Habara reportedly attempted to escape detention while in a transportation vehicle from court to prison.
