Egypt’s top prosecutor assassinated
GROUP CALLED THE POPULAR RESISTANCE CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ATTACK
Hesham Barakat dies of wounds sustained when a powerful bomb ripped through his convoy in the upscale district of Heliopolis, a Cairo suburb
Egypt’s chief prosecutor has been killed in a bomb attack carried out in Cairo on the eve of the anniversary of protests that led to the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
The bomb exploded as a convoy carrying Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat was passing through his neighbourhood in northern Cairo, state television reported yesterday.
Nine people, including civilians and policemen, were also injured in the blast.
Barakat is the highest-profile victim of a series of assassinations that have targeted mainly police officers in Cairo.
A security source told stateowned egynews.net that the initial investigation indicated that his convoy was hit by a remotely detonated highly explosive device. A militant group called the Popular Resistance claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on Facebook. The claim could not be verified.
The group has previously claimed responsibility for small bomb attacks in the capital.
Security forces cordoned off the area to search for any further explosives.
President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi held an urgent meeting with Interior Minister Majdi Abdul Gaffar to review the situation.
In September 2013, Egypt’s then interior minister, Mohammad Ebrahim, survived a similar attack.
Yesterday’s attack comes ahead of calls for protests by members of the Muslim Brotherhood to commemorate the June 30 protests that led to Mursi’s removal. Other secular groups have called for protests against economic and political conditions.
In a related development, the Sinai Province group, a Daesh affiliate, posted a video on social networks purporting to show the May 16 killing of three judges in the Sinai Peninsula.
The judges were shot dead just hours after a Cairo court issued a death sentence against Mursi over his alleged role in a 2011 jailbreak.
In the video, the Sinai Province vowed to continue “liquidating” judges.
“Some criminals [judges] ... betrayed God’s vows, judging people unjustly by atheist laws, acquitting criminals and setting the corrupt free, while putting the innocent to trial,” the video’s narrator said.