Egypt renames Rabaa Square after assassinated prosecutor
Egypt renames Rabaa Square after assassinated prosecutor
Rabaa al-Adaweya Square will now be known as Hisham Barakat Square, following the death of the prosecutor-general who green-lit a massacre on the site.
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Turks mark World Rabaa Day, which commemorates the 2013 massacre [Getty]
The infamous Rabaa al-Adaweya Square is to be re-named in honour of the country's prosecutor-general who was assassinated on Monday, local news has reported.
The new name follows calls made by the Egyptian Judges' Club for it to be dedicated to top prosecutor Hisham Barakat, who was killed in a powerful bombing that has been pinned on the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Barakat gave the green light to the armed forces to break up the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in at Rabaa al-Adaweya Square in Cairo in August 2013, where demonstrators were protesting against the coup which ousted Egypt's first elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
After the troops went in, around 900 people were left dead, and more than 3,000 were injured.
The massacre was widely condemned internationally, with Human Rights Watch calling it a "crime against humanity".
The name of the square was the inspiration for the now infmaous Rabaa hand gesture, which has come to symbolise the Brotherhood's struggle against the military government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The square was originally named after the nearby mosque of Rabaa al-Adawiya, a 8th century Muslim saint and Sufi mystic. Rabaa means "the fourth" in Arabic, which is the reason behind the open-palmed, four-finger Rabaa salute.
The new name follows calls made by the Egyptian Judges' Club for it to be dedicated to top prosecutor Hisham Barakat, who was killed in a powerful bombing that has been pinned on the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Barakat gave the green light to the armed forces to break up the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in at Rabaa al-Adaweya Square in Cairo in August 2013, where demonstrators were protesting against the coup which ousted Egypt's first elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
After the troops went in, around 900 people were left dead, and more than 3,000 were injured.
The massacre was widely condemned internationally, with Human Rights Watch calling it a "crime against humanity".
The name of the square was the inspiration for the now infmaous Rabaa hand gesture, which has come to symbolise the Brotherhood's struggle against the military government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The square was originally named after the nearby mosque of Rabaa al-Adawiya, a 8th century Muslim saint and Sufi mystic. Rabaa means "the fourth" in Arabic, which is the reason behind the open-palmed, four-finger Rabaa salute.
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