CAIRO - An Egyptian State Security court Thursday sentenced a senior leader of a terror group to life imprisonment for being convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks in the country, despite a previous decision to send him to the gallows. "Abdel Hamid Osman Abu Akrab is convicted of premeditated murders of a number of security leaders and policemen in the 1990s, and joining Al-Jamaa Al- Islamiya, an outlawed terrorist group. He is sentenced to life imprisonment in the two cases," the chief Judge Abdallah Abu Hashem said. He added that Abu Akrab was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the two cases heard by the court. "The total years from him to be imprisoned is 50 years," Abu Hasehm said. In June, the same court had referred the documents of Abu Akrab, a blind man who is in his sixth decade of ago, to Egypt's grand mufti, a gesture that he would be sentence to death. According to the court, Abu Akrab was behind the killing of a senior police officer in 1993. He also led a group of 32 terrorists who mounted eight terror attacks in Egypt's southern governorate of Assiut. The man was arrested after staying at large for 15 years. The court has deferred the session to issue the ruling three times since October 20, a matter described by Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst, as a bid to absorb the anger by leaders of the group, who had had a deal in 2005 with police to abandon violence. "It's rare one gets life sentence after he is referred to the mufti. There could be some kind of a deal to avoid troubles," Rashwan said. Under the Egyptian law, the country's chief religious official must review all death sentences before the final verdict, which in this case will be pronounced on October 20.
