(MENAFN – Khaleej Times) Egypt’s state prosecutor was killed in a powerful bombing that hit his convoy in Cairo on Monday following militants’ calls for attacks on the judiciary to avenge a crackdown on Islamists.
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Egypt’s top prosecutor has died in hospital after suffering mortal injuries in an explosion that targeted his auto, the MENA state news agency reports.
Barakat lived near Egypt’s heavily fortified military academy, and the attack came as security forces already were on high alert ahead of the anniversary the 2013 rallies by millions of people demanding Morsi’s ouster.
Militants who for years had been fighting in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, widened their insurgency after the military’s ouster of Morsi, which was prompted by massive protests against his rule.
He died of injuries sustained in the revenge attack by Islamist militants that targeted his convoy near his house in Misr el-Gedida district in Cairo. A medical official at the hospital told the Associated Press that Mr Barakat had received multiple shrapnel wounds to the shoulder, chest and liver.
The bomb exploded as he left his home in the neighbourhood of Heliopolis for his office.
Scores of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members, including Morsi, have been sentenced to death. However, according to the Daily Mail who reported on the assassination video of the judges but did not share it, “the Egyptian franchise of ISIS have developed a reputation for calculated assassinations of authority figures, targeting army and security personnel as well as members of Egypt’s judiciary”.
Monday’s assassination may help the Sisi administration justify its increasing crackdowns on all opposition groups in Egypt, Islamist or not, and it may also help Islamists rally support on the ground, helping to unify cracks among their ranks, such as one brewing between the old guard and the youth.
Egyptian media said at least five others were wounded in the blast, which took place not far from the prosecutor’s home. Pictures of the blast showed a large plume of black smoke rising in front of apartment buildings and several cars were on fire. The most active group is Sinai Province, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the ultra-hardline jihadist group that has seized control of significant areas of Iraq and Syria.
Judicial sources told Reuters any amendments could also restrict the number of appeals to one from two and give judges final say on which witnesses could testify. Three judges were shot and killed in Sinai on May 16, coinciding with Morsi’s death sentence. If a death sentence is passed, it will be implemented.
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The attack came after the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis militant group, an affiliate of the Islamic State, posted a video clip on Monday supposedly showing attacks in May that killed two judges and a prosecutor.
