Egypt’s military criminal court referred on Tuesday the cases of 36 members of the ISIS terrorist group to the Grand Mufti after they were sentenced to death for attacks against churches in the country. The defendants are suspected of involvement in bombings that hit three Coptic churches - one at Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral in December 2016 that killed at least 25, and two that hit churches in Alexandria and Tanta on the same day in April 2017 and killed more than 45 people. Egypt requires that courts refer cases to the Grand Mufti for consideration of the death penalty ahead of a final verdict although his decision is non-binding. The court will issue a final verdict on May 15. Eleven of the 36 are being tried in absentia, a lawyer involved in the case told Reuters. Public prosecutor Nabil Sadek said previously that some of the suspects held leadership positions in ISIS and formed cells in Cairo and the southern province of Qena to carry out the church attacks. Some of the defendants are also accused of carrying out an attack on a checkpoint in Egypt’s Western Desert that killed at least eight policemen in 2017.