43 receive draconian sentences over death of Egyptian prosecutor
An Egyptian court has handed down some draconian death and life sentences to 43 people for their involvement in the 2015 killing of the country’s then top prosecutor.
In a Saturday hearing, the criminal court in Cairo sentenced 28 people to death while 15 other people convicted in the case received jails terms of up to 25 years.
The sentences were announced by the court after Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the country’s top religious authority, reportedly approved an earlier recommendation for endorsing the death penalties. The sentences are now open for appeal, the court said.
The ruling brought to an end the relatively long legal procedure related to the death of Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s former public prosecutor who was killed on June 29, 2015, when a car bomb hit his convoy in Cairo. Egyptian authorities blamed the assassination on the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest and most popular party in the country, which had been outlawed a year earlier after a series of political developments led to the rise of army man Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to power at the expense of Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood member.
Tens of thousands of Brotherhood members have been jailed and convicted by Sisi’s judiciary system over the past three years while many from the party’s top echelon have been sentenced to death or life in jail. Rights groups have repeatedly criticized the crackdown, saying it has mostly targeted the political opponents of Sisi.
Egypt has also accused Palestinian resistance movement Hamas of playing a role in Barakat’s killing. The Gaza-based movement, which has been subject to increasing restrictions by Sisi, has denied any involvement in the 2015 attack.
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