An Egyptian court has sentenced an alleged Islamic State supporter to death for stabbing and killing an 82-year-old Christian doctor in Cairo.

The September 2017 killing took place when the 40-year-old, pretending to be a patient, requested to see the doctor.

He started stabbing the doctor as soon as he was shown into the clinic’s examination room, and stabbed the physician’s assistant when she intervened to try and stop the attack.

Prosecutors said the defendant embraced the extremist ideology of the Islamic State group, which spearheads an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula. IS has vowed to target Egypt’s minority Christians to punish them for their support of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Saturday’s verdict was sent to Egypt’s top Muslim cleric for ratification, a formality whose outcome is non-binding.