17th June, 2017
Photo: The Irish Times
A court in Cairo has recommended the death penalty for 30 people convicted of involvement in the killing of Egypt’s top public prosecutor.
Hisham Barakat was assassinated in a car bomb attack in June 2015.
He was the most senior state official to be killed by militants in recent years.
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, BBC reports.
Egypt blamed the Brotherhood and Gaza-based Hamas militants for Mr Barakat’s killing, although both groups have denied they were involved.
Last year the Interior Ministry released a video showing several men confessing to the killing, and saying they went to Gaza for training from Hamas. Some of them later denied the allegations in court and said they had been tortured.
The court’s recommendations will now be sent to Egypt’s highest religious authority, the grand mufti.
BBC reports that all death sentences have to be sent to the grand mufti for his opinion on whether they should stand. But even when the grand mufti gives his approval, convictions are still open to appeal.