Cairo, June 17: A Cairo criminal court Saturday sentenced 31 persons to death on charges of involvement in the assassination of Egypt’s former attorney general, officials said. Hisham Barakat, who was 63 years old when he was appointed attorney general by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi following a military coup against Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, was assassinated in a June 2015 terror attack, Efe news reported.
The 31 men have been charged with crimes including premeditated murder, belonging to a terrorist group, joining a foreign terror organisation, possessing and manufacturing explosives, illegally possessing firearms and blades, illegally crossing the border and espionage. The prosecution also accused them of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood — considered a terrorist group by the current Egyptian government — and to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. The ruling is set to be sent to the Egyptian Mufti, an Islamic scholar and legal expert, although his opinion is non-binding. The definitive verdict is scheduled for July 22. Egypt faces an Islamist insurgency led by Islamic State in North Sinai, where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed.
The group has also increasingly carried out attacks in Egypt targeting Christians in a spate of church bombings and shootings that have killed some 100 since December.
Agencies
