The Assiut Criminal Court sentenced four defendants to death and another one to ten years on Wednesday, after finding them guilty of the murder of a priest in February 2011.
State-run agency MENA reported that one of the four defendants was handed the death sentence in absentia, while the same applied to the defendant sentenced to prison.
Assiut prosecutors had charged the defendants with the premeditated murder of Father Dawood Botrous Paules, whom they stabbed several stabs with a bladed weapon in order to steal his possessions.
One of the defendants, the priest's employee, facilitated the murderers' access to the victim's house, according to the prosecution.
Edited translation from MENA
