Egypt sentences 28 to death for murder of ex-top prosecutor

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IANS Cairo
Last Updated : Jul 22 2017 | 5:57 PM IST

An Egyptian court on Saturday confirmed death sentences against 28 people over the murder of a former public prosecutor in 2015, the media reported.

The Cairo Criminal Court also sentenced 15 persons to life term -- 25 years -- eight to 15 years in prison and 15 others to 10-year imprisonment in the same case, Xinhua news agency reported.

The defendants were convicted of premeditated murder, association with a terrorist organisation and possessing weapons and explosives.

The court last month referred the sentence of 31 persons to the Grand Mufti, the country's highest Islamic official who gives the religious judgment of all preliminary death sentences.

Though the Mufti's opinion is non-binding as it is usually considered a formality, he confirmed death sentences against only 28.

Former prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed in a car bombing in Cairo on June 29, 2015.

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Some 67 defendants were charged in the case, but one of them passed away before the sentence was confirmed.

A little known group calling itself "the Giza Popular Resistance" claimed responsibility for the attack.

Before the attack, the Islamic State affiliate group in Sinai, then known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis urged followers to attack judges.

--IANS

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First Published: Jul 22 2017 | 5:46 PM IST

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