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 court set a verdict session for July 22, after referring its recommendation to the country’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding legally required opinion.
Public Prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed by a car bomb attack on his convoy in Cairo in 2015, an operation for which Egypt blamed the Muslim Brotherhood and Gaza-based Hamas militants, though both groups have denied the charge.
NAN reports that Barakat died of his wounds in hospital after the bombing in the suburb of Heliopolis.
State media said that at least eight others were also hurt in the attack.
Barakat has sent thousands of Islamists for trial since the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013
Hundreds of Islamists have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, as part of a crackdown on supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Jihadist militants have meanwhile stepped up their attacks on Egypt’s security forces.
Barakat is the most senior figure to have been targeted for assassination since a 2013 attempt on the life of the then-interior minister.(Reuters/NAN)
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