The Cairo Criminal Court has sentenced 32 defendants in the case known as the “Helwan microbus cell”, of which seven defendants received death sentences, local media reported. The incident dates back to May 2016 when eight plainclothes police officers were killed in an armed attack that targeted a checkpoint operation near Helwan police station, according to a statement issued on the Interior Ministry's official Facebook page published directly after the attack at that time. The court sentenced Mahmoud Mohamed Abdel Tawab, Ahmed Salama Ali, Mohamed Ibrahim Hamed, El Harith Abdel Rahman, Ibrahim Ismail Ismail, Abdullah Mohamed Shoukry, and Mahmoud Abdel Hamid Ahmed to death by hanging. Mohammed Ayman, Hussein Hilal, and Mahmoud Hussein were sentenced to 10-15 years of imprisonment, other seven defendants were acquitted of the crimes The Cairo Criminal Court has filed several charges against defendants in this case, including joining a terrorist group, possession of weapons and explosives, carrying out terrorist operations, deliberate killing of police officers, and the assassination of an officer and seven police secretaries from Helwan police station. They were also accused of perpetrating terrorist operations in Moneeb, the killing of Head of Al-Moneeb Traffic Unit Brigadier Ali Fahmi and his accompanying recruiter, setting fire to their car, assassinating Ahmed Fawy, a police secretary from Giza Traffic Administration force in El-Marazeeq, armed robbery at Helwan post office, and stealing 82,000 EGP on April 6, 2016. "On Sunday morning while plainclothes officers from Helwan police station were operating a checkpoint in a minibus near their station on Omar Abdel Aziz Street, four anonymous militants driving a truck opened fire at the officers," the statement read. At that time, both Islamic State (IS) and the "Popular Resistance" movement whose affiliation is believed to be related to the Muslim Brotherhood have claimed responsibility for the attack. According to a statement from the IS published at that time, the attack on the eight officers was carried out to get revenge for women being imprisoned. "The attack resulted in killing all eight apostate police officers. Thanks to God, the Jihadists were able to seize the killed officers' weapons and returned safely," the statement read. The attack was executed by four militants who hid inside the boot of the truck and then opened fire on the minibus. The attack resulted in the death of seven low-ranking police officers and one officer, according to the Interior Ministry's report. The "Popular Resistance" movement also claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement issued at that time. The group mentioned the names of the murdered police officers before the ministry's official statement.
