Egyptian prison authorities executed Wednesday a 22-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering a five-year-old girl in Upper Egypt's Minya governorate in March 2014. 

 

Investigations in the case revealed that the convict kidnapped the girl, before taking her to an abandoned building in Maghaha village and raping her. He choked her with a cloth and repeatedly hit her in the head. 

 

The convict's death verdict was upheld by the Court of Cassation in February 2016.

 

The Minya governorate prisons department also executed Wednesday five people convicted of murder in Qena and Gharbeya governorates under tight security measures.

 

On Tuesday, an Egyptian criminal court referred to the Grand Mufti a death sentence issued against a man convicted of raping a 20-month-old child in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya last month in a case known publicly known as "the diaper girl's case."

 

The court is expected to confirm the sentence on 2 June after the Grand Mufti gives his opinion, which is not legally binding, on the validity of the death sentence according to Islamic law.

 

The most famous case of the rape and murder of a child happened in the coastal governorate of Port-Said in 2013, when two minors kidnapped, raped and killed 5-year-old girl Zeina Arafa, provoking rage and public outcry across the country.

 

The convicts in this case were sentenced by a criminal court to 20 years in prison. The court apologised to the public for not imposing capital punishment, as Egyptian law forbids issuing the death penalty to people younger than 18 years old.