An Egyptian court has jailed eight people for their roles in a 2005 suicide bombing that killed three foreign tourists in one of Cairo's bazaars.
The court handed down the sentences on Monday, jailing four of the men for life and giving lesser custodial sentence of between one and 10 years to the other four.
The court also freed five of the accused and delayed sentencing on another who is currently in hospital.
All 14 people were accused of involvement in an April 2005 attack in Cairo's al-Azhar bazaar district, which killed two French nationals and a US citizen and wounded 11 other tourists.
The courtroom was packed on Monday, though no relatives or representatives of those killed in the blast were present.
The defendants had been charged with belonging to an illegal group, possessing weapons intended for use in "terrorist operations", using force and violence to disturb public order and threaten the security of the state.
Targeting the economy
The 2005 attack was the first on foreigners in Egypt's capital in seven years and was seen as targeting the Egyptian economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism and had been hit hard by previous attacks.
In recent years, Egypt has been hit by a string of bombings targeting tourists in popular resorts on the Red Sea coast of the Sinai peninsula.
On April 30, a man wanted in connection with the 2005 attack blew himself up after he was chased by police in downtown Cairo, killing himself and wounding seven other people.
Less than an hour later, two women died while carrying out an abortive shooting attack on a tourist bus near the Citadel, a popular tourist attraction.
Ashraf Said Yusef, the suspected planner of the attacks, had been captured the day before, after throwing himself out of an apartment window as he attempted to escape the police.
He later died in police custody from what police said were self-inflicted injuries.