Egypt sentences 28 to death over prosecutor`s killing

Cairo: A Cairo criminal court on Saturday confirmed death sentences against 28 people over the killing of Egypt's public prosecutor in 2015 and handed jail term to 15 others of 25 years each.

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

Pursuant to Article (2/381) of Criminal Procedural Law, it is obligatory for the criminal court to refer death penalty cases to the Grand Mufti before passing the death verdict.

The Grand Mufti reviews the cases referred to him by the criminal court and examines all papers from the beginning of the case.

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.

Mufti confirmed death sentences against only 28.

Former top public prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed in a car bombing in Cairo on June 29, 2015. A group called "the Giza Popular Resistance" claimed responsibility of the attack.

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