31 sentenced to death in Egypt over assassination of prosecutor

A Cairo criminal court on Saturday recommended the death penalty for 31 people convicted of involvement in the 2015 assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor, the most senior state official killed by militants two years before.

The ruling issued by judge Hassan Farid, referred the case to the country’s top theologian to get his non-binding opinion on the death sentences, a formality followed by courts in the case of capital punishment.

Hisham Barakat, top prosecutor whose convoy had been targeted by assailants, in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, died of organ failure caused by his severe wounds in a hospital several hours after the assault.

Mr Barakat had sent thousands of Islamists to trial since the overthrow of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-backed government in 2013.

Hundreds of Islamists were sentenced to death or life imprisonment, as part of a crackdown on supporters of the banned group.

“They shed the blood of a Muslim while he was fasting in Ramadan,” Farid said, referring to the holy month for Muslims that fell in July in 2015.

“And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his punishment is hell,” the judge added, quoting a verse from Islam’s holy book, the Quran.

Barakat was appointed prosecutor-general by Egypt’s then interim-President Adly Mansour in July 2013, shortly after the military ousted the country’s first freely-elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

Only half of the defendants are currently in custody, with the remaining 15 on the run. The court set a verdict session for July 22 to hand down its final verdict to the 31 convicts as well as 37 other defendants in the case. The July 22 verdict can be appealed.