Cairo Criminal Court sentences 31 to death for assassination of country’s top prosecutor

El-Sayed Gamal El-Din , Saturday 17 Jun 2017

The court set 22 July to issue its final verdict against the 31, and 36 other defendants in the same trial

ECC
File Photo: Egyptian criminal court recommended on Saturday the death penalty for 31 people convicted of involvement in the 2015 assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor. (AFP)

Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Saturday 31 defendants to death in a preliminary judgement on the 2015 assassination of the country's top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat.

The court set 22 July to issue its final verdict on the 31 as well as the rest of the defendants — 36 others — in the trial.

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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