Egypt’s leader to intensify security
At top prosecutor’s funeral, the president vows to crack down on ‘ enemies.’
CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, paying tribute to his assassinated top prosecutor, on Tuesday signaled the start of an even harsher security crackdown targeting “enemies” of his government.
At the funeral of Hisham Barakat, the prosecutor general who was killed Monday by a massive car bomb, the president vowed to take unspecified steps to strengthen the hand of authorities, who already wield extraordinary powers to crush dissent.
“The hand of justice is tied by laws,” an angrylooking Sisi said, speaking outside the landmark Cairo mosque where funeral prayers were held. “We won’t wait on this. We will amend the laws in order for us to achieve justice.”
Flanked by mourners, the Egyptian leader added: “We are facing terrorism — there must be laws to confront this.”
It was unclear what steps the president might be contemplating. Egypt spent three months under a state of emergency in 2013, after police and soldiers killed hundreds of supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
After the state of emergency was lifted, the government enacted a stringent law that banned unauthorized street protests. That has been used as a means of jailing both secular and Islamist opponents of the government, with many sentenced under it to lengthy prison terms.
In his remarks, Sisi hinted that a death sentence handed down against Morsi in June could be expedited, though he did not mention the former president by name. Normally such capital cases take months or even years to wend their way through appeals and other delays.
“We are executing the law,” said the president. “If a death sentence is issued, then it will be carried out.” In addition to Morsi, hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and leaders have been sentenced to death, many of them in mass tribunals denounced by human rights groups and Western governments.
Egyptian officials and pro- government news outlets blamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood for Barakat’s assassination, although the group publicly condemned the attack. No other known organization has claimed responsibility, but an Islamic State affiliate known as Sinai Province had claimed responsibility for earlier killing of judges, and called for more attacks directed at the judiciary.
Barakat’s funeral took place under extremely tight security, and the atmosphere across the capital was tense, with armored person- nel carriers dotting streets and squares. Television channels canceled programming to devote the day to hours- long coverage of the funeral.
Tuesday was a national holiday, honoring the second anniversary of the outbreak of mass protests that preceded Morsi’s removal from office by Sisi, then the defense minister. Sisi was elected to the presidency in May 2014.
Egyptian security forces have battled a violent Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, with hundreds of police and soldiers killed.
Human rights groups have denounced sweeping rights abuses under Sisi, calling the climate more repressive than under longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak.
In the latest withering criticism by an international rights group, Amnesty International on Tuesday released a report accusing Egyptian authorities of arbitrarily imprisoning thousands, targeting young activists in particular. The report, titled “Generation Jail,” says Egypt’s tough anti- protest law is wielded as a means of mass repression.
“By relentlessly targeting Egypt’s youth activists, the authorities are crushing an entire generation’s hopes for a brighter future,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.
Badr Abdelatty, a spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, called the report “baseless.” The London- based organization, he said, is “targeting us. They are targeting Egypt.”