4 sentenced to life for Cairo attacks

Four terror suspects were convicted by a security court Monday and sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in attacks that killed two French tourists and an American in 2005, judicial officials said.

They had pleaded not guilty to charges that included collaborating in the attacks; unlicensed possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives; harboring fugitives and belonging to a banned group. Egyptian authorities have said the suspects had established an Islamic extremist group.

Five other suspects, including two women, received jail sentences that ranged from one to 10 years in prison. The court acquitted four others over the lack of evidence, the officials said. The hearing for one suspect was postponed.

The prosecutor told the court that the defendants had confessed during interrogations to buying materials for bombs and making the explosives used in the incidents.

In the first of the three attacks, which occurred on the fringes of a bazaar in April 7, 2005, a bomber and the three foreigners died. Eighteen people were wounded.

In the second attack, on April 30, a bomber died when he leapt from a bridge behind the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, landing near a tourist bus. Nine people were wounded, four of them foreigners.

A few hours later, two veiled women opened fire on a tourist bus. They did not kill any bystanders, but one suspect shot her accomplice before turning the gun on herself.