Egypt’s Cassation Court ruled on Saturday to mitigate the death sentence into life imprisonment against six defendants in the case of the deadly attack on a security checkpoint in Khosous.

The attack on a security checkpoint in Khosous in 2016 left one policeman dead and others injured.

The Cassation Court also accepted the appeal of the General Prosecution to extend the punishment of the defendant Omar Khalil to maximum imprisonment of 15 years instead of three years, and upheld the prison sentences of the rest of the defendants.

Investigations revealed that in 2016 one of the defendants established and led a terrorist group with the aim of disrupting the provisions of law and constitution and preventing state authorities from carrying out their duties.

According to investigations, the group called for excommunicating the ruler, forcibly changing the regime and attacking the police and Armed Forces. It also trained other defendants on using firearms to assassinate police officers.

A Cairo criminal court had previously sentenced the six defendants to death and two others to life in prison in August 2018 over the attack.

The criminal court found the defendants guilty of orchestrating terrorist attacks against police and army personnel, recruiting others to join a terrorist organisation, possession of illegal firearms and financing a terrorist organisation.