John Raoux/AP
Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, was convicted in absentia in Egypt on charges linked to an anti-Islam film.
Firebrand Florida pastor Terry Jones is a dead man walking if he ever steps a foot into Egypt.
An Egyptian court convicted Jones in absentia Wednesday and sentenced him to death in connection to a controversial anti-Islam film that incited deadly protests around the world in September, including the killing of the American ambassador in Benghazi, Libya.
The Cairo court also called for the death of seven Egyptian Coptic Christians who no longer live in the country. Some of them are also linked to the film, including the man believed to be behind the project, Mark Basseley Youssef.
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Jones, 61, gained notoriety for threatening to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 in 2010. While a wave of protests led him to back down, he decided to go through with it in March 2011 by putting the Islamic holy book on “trial” and setting a copy on fire at his Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla.
This time, his public promotion of the amatuer flick, “Innocence of Muslims,” in which the Prophet Muhammad is disparaged as a womanizing huckster, made Jones a target again. Reuters reported that a top U.S. military official even contacted Jones to tell him to stop supporting the film.
The charges from the Egyptian high court, which were issued in September, are seen as symbolic.
Egypt’s official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam, and spreading false information — charges that carry the death sentence.
Maximum sentences are common in cases tried in absentia in Egypt. Capital punishment decisions are reviewed by the country’s chief religious authority, who must approve or reject the sentence. A final verdict is scheduled on Jan. 29.
Jones told The Associated Press that the ruling “shows the true face of Islam” — one that he views as intolerant of dissent and opposed to basic freedoms of speech and religion.
“We can speak out here in America,” Jones said Wednesday. “That freedom means that we criticize government leadership, religion even at times. Islam is not a religion that tolerates any type of criticism.”
Youssef, meanwhile, was sentenced in a California court earlier this month to a year in federal prison for probation violations in an unrelated matter. The 55-year-old admitted that he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver’s license under a false name. He was on probation for a bank fraud case.
During the trial in Egypt, the court reportedly reviewed a video of some defendants calling for an independent Coptic state in Egypt, and another of Jones burning the Koran. The prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence, accusing those charged of seeking to divide Egypt and incite sedition.
All of the defendants, except Jones, hold Egyptian nationality, the agency added.
Some Christians and human rights groups worry that prosecutions for insulting religion, which existed to a degree under the secular-leaning regime of Hosni Mubarak, will now increase with the ascent of Islamists to power.
With News Wire Services
eortiz@nydailynews.com
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