Egypt’s military court gave out eight death penalties, four of which were issued in absentia, and 16 others to life imprisonment over the 2015 assassination of interior ministry public security Colonel Wael Tahoon, as well as the killing of one other policeman and one civilian. The court also acquitted 26 defendants in the case. The case, which involved 52 defendants, dates back to an April 2015 attack where Tahoon was gunned down near his home in Cairo. The two other victims were also killed in the attack. Tahoun was serving at the public security department of the ministry of interior at the time of his assassination. The defendants were charged with provoking the murder of Tahoun and two others, destroying public and private property, as well as committing hostile actions. Egypt has seen a wave of deadly militant attacks, mainly against security forces since 2013 ex-president Mohamed Morsi, a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood, was overthrown. In the details of yesterday’s verdict, the court acquitted prominent Egyptian-born Qatari Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi, and the spiritual leader of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood. It also acquitted Abdel Rahman al-Barr, Mohamed Taha Wahdan, Mahmoud Ghazlan and Mohamed Saed Aliwa, all of which are members of the Brotherhood’s advisory bureau. They were acquitted from charges of inciting murder and leading a terrorist group. The court also sentenced 16 defendants to hard labor, 6 were sentenced in absentia. On the other hand, Armed Forces Spokesman Col. Tamer Rifai said that law enforcement forces in the second field army in northern Sinai, in cooperation with the air force in the past few days, eliminated one of the most dangerous "Takfiri" members with automatic rifle and communication equipment. Rifai announced army units successfully discovering and destroying a four-wheel vehicle belonging to terrorists and the arrest of 22 individuals suspected of supporting the Takfiris.\ He also said that a store containing a large quantity of ballistics, bombs and explosive devices was discovered and destroyed.