Hisham Ashmawi: Egypt court sentences 'top jihadist' to death Published duration 27 November 2019

image copyright Libyan National Army image caption Hisham Ashmawi was captured in eastern Libya in October 2018

A military court in Egypt has sentenced to death a man once considered the country's most wanted jihadist.

Hisham Ashmawi was found guilty of involvement in several high-profile attacks, including one in western Egypt in 2014 that killed 22 security personnel , an army spokesman said.

Ashmawi was captured in eastern Libya last year by Khalifa Haftar's forces.

The renegade commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which has close relations with Egypt's government, handed Ashmawi over for trial this May.

Ashmawi, also known as Abu Umar al-Muhajir, once served in the Egyptian army's special operations force but was dismissed over his religious views.

The army said he later became a senior figure in the Sinai-based jihadist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, but that he left before it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014.

Ashmawi subsequently moved with a number of followers to Egypt's Western Desert, and then crossed the border into eastern Libya, it added.