South Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Saturday 28 to death for the 2015 assassination of the country's top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat.

The court also sentenced 15 others to life in prison and sentenced eight individuals to 15 years in prison.

According to Egypt’s penal code, a life in prison is twenty-five years.

In June, the court initially sentenced 31 to death for Barakat’s assassination and referred the decision to the country’s top cleric for his non-binding consultative opinion, as per the country’s penal code.

The verdict can still be appealed in front of the appeals court.

In June 2015, Barakat was killed in a Cairo bomb attack that struck his convoy in the upscale eastern Cairo district of Heliopolis.

Sixty-seven people were charged in connection with the assassination, with the general prosecution accusing defendants – who it says are members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group – of conspiring with members of Gaza’s Hamas to kill the top prosecutor.

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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