CAIRO, Feb 24 (Aswat Masriya) - The Zagazig Criminal Court referred on Tuesday Islamist jihadist Adel Habara and seven others to Egypt's Grand Mufti to consider sentencing them to death for committing violence. 

Habara is accused, alongside the seven other defendants convicted on Tuesday, of joining an "extremist" group with the purpose of stalling the constitution, overthrowing the regime and targeting security personnel. The defendants are also accused of contacting the militant group of Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria and attempting to recruit members to join it as well as possessing firearms and explosives.

Consulting Egypt’s Grand Mufti is a procedural steps adopted in all cases which involve death sentences. The Mufti's rulings are not binding, yet it is customary for the court to adopt them. 

The same court also sentenced seven defendants believed to be supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood for five years in maximum security prison for committing acts of violence, while acquitting 29 defendants.

The 36 defendants were accused of joining a terrorist group, violating the protest law, rioting, inciting violence, possessing arms, resisting the authorities and vandalising public and private properties.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced to death Habara last December for killing 25 soldiers in Rafah in August 2013, alongside six others.

The jailed defendant has also been sentenced to death in absentia before for complicity in two bombings in Sinai in 2004 and 2006.