Hours after an Egyptian court sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death for his role in a mass jailbreak in 2011, suspected Islamic militants gunned down three judges in Sinai Peninsula.
In what is believed to be a violent response to the sentencing, the suspected members of Morsi's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood gunned down the judges and a driver in northern Senai.
Quoting Egypt's interior ministry, The Independent reported on Sunday that a policeman was also killed on Saturday when the gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a car carrying the three Egyptian judges.
Since Morsi's ouster by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, dozens of attacks have targeted security forces. However, according to Al Jazeera, the Saturday's attack was the first time that the country's judges have been targeted.
On Saturday, a Cairo court headed by judge Shaaban el Shami had sentenced the former president Morsi and a 100 others to capital punishment on charges of espionage.
Morsi, however, can challenge the sentencing by approaching the grand mufti of the country.
The former president is currently serving a 20-year prison term for ordering the attack on the protesters that killed many outside the Egyptian presidential palace in December 2012. The sentencing on Saturday was met with firm resistance from Morsi supporters, who chanted "down, down with military rule".
Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie and Qatar-based Muslim theologian Youssef al-Qaradawi also are among the prominent figures sentenced to death by the Cairo court. The court will pronounce its final verdict on 2 June.
The Muslim Brotherhood told Al Jazeera that the court verdict was a farce. "They are insisting on issuing these verdicts against anyone who participated in the 25 January Revolution ... all of the verdicts fail to meet international standards of law ... they are farcical and will be dismissed as a failing of the coup," said Mohamed Soudan, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member who after Morsi's ouster fled Egypt and currently lives in the UK.
