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

Cairo July 22 (IANS) 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.

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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