Courts reduce sentences for monk in 2018 bishop murder, policeman who killed activist Shaimaa El Sabbagh

A Cairo court has reduced the sentence handed down to Ramon Mansour — one of two monks found guilty of killing a bishop at the St. Macarius Monastery in 2018 — to life in prison, from a death sentence, Reuters reports, citing a judicial source. Mansour had appealed the initial ruling. The second monk arrested for aiding the murder had his appeal rejected an still faces execution. The Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appeals court, also reduced to seven years the 10-year prison sentence handed to the police officer who killed activist Shaimaa El-Sabbagh in 2015 during a peaceful protest, according to the newswire. The officer was first sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2015.