Egypt’s criminal court sentenced Sinai militant Adel Habara to death on Sunday on charges of killing a police officer in Sharqiya's Abu Kebir.

The Egyptian prosecution referred the convicted to court in 2012 for shooting the officer several times in the Nile Delta governorate, resulting in his death.

The sentence is not a final verdict. The convicted has the right to appeal under Egyptian law.

This will be the third death sentence in three different cases issued to Habara since 2013.

He received the first death sentence for an execution-style killing of policemen in August 2013 in Rafah, and the second for possessing ammunition, explosives, and targeting police and army personnel.

The prosecution charged Habara with "joining a jihadi group that aims to overthrow the government and target the army and police, possessing explosives, having connections with the Islamic State group, and receiving funds from outside parties to achieve this goal."

Habara and the other defendants were all arrested in Egypt's Sharqiya governorate, northeast of Cairo, in September 2013 while possessing ammunition and explosive devices.

He is currently standing a retrial in the Rafah case, as his appeal of the death sentence was granted. Meanwhile, he has the right to appeal on the two other death sentences.

Habara, who made headlines over his involvement in the 2013 attack, is also accused of participating in another major militant attack in Rafah against the Egyptian army in August 2012, which left 16 soldiers dead.

He is accused of carrying out other militant operations against security forces.

A large number of Islamists have been sentenced to death in similar cases over the past year.