CAIRO — A court here Wednesday sentenced to death seven Egyptian Christians tried in absentia for participating in an anti-Islam video that was released on the Internet in September and prompted violent protests in Muslim countries. “The seven accused persons were convicted of insulting the Islamic religion through participating in producing and offering a movie that insults Islam and its Prophet (peace be upon him),” Judge Saif Al-Nasr Soliman said. The low-budget video, produced privately in California, denigrated the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and triggered anti-US protests and attacks on Western embassies around the Muslim World. The convicted persons included Egyptian-American Nakoula Bassely Nakoula, who is currently serving a one-year-jail term in Los Angeles after an American court convicted him of probation violations that stemmed from his role in the movie. During the trial, the judges were shown clips of the film and footage of Muslim protesters in Libya outraged by the film, the official MENA news agency reported. Egyptian courts usually hand out the maximum punishment — execution in this case for a blasphemy verdict — and send the decision to the state's top Islamic scholar to get his approval, which is always granted. If the defendants do return to Egypt, they could get a new trial. Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church did not comment on the ruling. “It is a court ruling and the Church does not comment on court decisions,” said a Church source who asked not to be named. — Agencies
