Former Egyptian general prosecutor, Hisham Barakat (Photo: AP)
Egypt's Prisons Authority executed on Monday nine prisoners convicted of assassinating Egyptian prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat in 2015.
Egypt's court of cassation upheld the death sentence for the prisoners in November 2018, rejecting an appeal against the sentence.
However, the court did commute the sentence of six other prisoners from death to life in prison. It also sentenced 15 defendants to life in prison, eight defendants to 15 years, and 10 others to 10 years.
The defendants in the case were charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, the possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, and the possession of explosives devices.
In June 2015, Barakat was killed in a Cairo bomb attack that struck his convoy in the upscale eastern Cairo district of Heliopolis.
A militant group calling itself the “Popular Resistance” claimed responsibility for the bombing. A court in February 2017 designated the group a terrorist organisation.
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