Three Egyptian Judges Gunned Down, Others Injured In Sinai Hours After Court Sentences Mohamed Morsi To Death

Three judges were shot and killed in Egypt on Saturday when gunmen attacked a bus traveling in the city of al-Arish, Sinai, injuring several others, including three other judges. The assault came hours after former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to death by a court in Cairo, however it was unclear whether the events were related, according to Agence France-Presse.

Recent outbursts of violence on the Sinai Peninsula, where authorities are fighting an Islamist insurgency with ties to the Islamic State group, or ISIS, prompted the Egyptian government to declare a state of emergency for the region. “There are regular bomb attacks against government buildings, security forces and energy infrastructure,” a spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, based in the U.K., told the Independent. “The al-Arish area has seen many attacks, but the whole of the North Sinai region is at risk.”

An Egyptian court sentenced Morsi and more than 100 other people to death on Saturday for their role in a mass prison break in 2011. Morsi was serving a 20-year prison term for crimes related to the 2011 Egyptian uprising that topped Hosni Mubarak, including ordering protesters to be arrested and tortured.

Morsi, the country’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted by the military in July 2013.

Supporters of Morsi and his party the Muslim Brotherhood chanted “down, down with military rule” following the Cairo court’s ruling, according to the Associated Press. The party has been banned from elections in August 2014, and hundreds of its former party members and supporters have been jailed.