Egypt sentences 28 to death over prosecutor killing

Egyptian forces have killed 30 extremists during several days of security operations in the Sinai Peninsula involving the army, air force and police, the military said Saturday.

Other 15 indictees were sentenced to life imprisonment, eight people to eight years in prison and 15 more to 10 years in custody, the website of the Dostor newspaper said.

The court last month referred the sentence of 31 to the Grand Mufti, the country’s highest Islamic official who gives the religious judgment of all preliminary death sentences. The sentences are now open for appeal, the court said.

Hisham Barakat was killed in 2015 when a vehicle bomb struck his convoy in Cairo after jihadist calls for attacks on the judiciary to avenge a crackdown on Islamists.

Egyptian forces shot dead two militants from the Hasam group, the government said on Friday, after the Islamist group claimed to have carried a deadly attack on police.

“Others who had nothing to do with the assassination of martyr Hisham Barakat received life sentences”.

Egypt has also accused Palestinian resistance movement Hamas of playing a role in Barakat’s killing. Rights groups have repeatedly criticized the crackdown, saying it has mostly targeted the political opponents of Sisi. The Gaza-based movement, which has been subject to increasing restrictions by Sisi, has denied any involvement in the 2015 attack.