Egypt sentences 28 to death over prosecutor killing

An Egyptian court sentenced 28 people to death for involvement in the killing of a top prosecutor two years ago, security and judicial officials said on Saturday.

Notorious prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed in 2015 when a car bomb struck his convoy in Cairo after calls for attacks members of the judiciary to avenge a crackdown on Islamists.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but police later said they had arrested the perpetrators, charging they were members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The court also sentenced 15 defendants to life in prison, while a further eight received 15 years, and 15 others were handed 10 years, the officials said.

"The verdicts were shocking today," Ahmed Saad, one of the defence lawyers, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"Others who had nothing to do with the assassination of martyr Hisham Barakat received life sentences. They had nothing to do with the incident."

The death sentences have already been approved by the mufti, Egypt's official interpreter of Islamic law, whose opinion is legally required but not binding.

The rulings can still be appealed.

"We are Egypt's judiciary, we have nothing to do with politics; we rule in the case in accordance to evidence and observations," Hassan Farid, the lead judge in the case, said in the court’s ruling statement.

Egypt has struggled to quell a jihadi insurgency in the Sinai since the military overthrew Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and cracked down on his supporters.

Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of Morsi supporters to death since his overthrow, but many have appealed and won new trials.

Morsi and other top figures of his Muslim Brotherhood have also faced trial.

The UN and human rights groups have condemned Egypt's liberal use of death sentences, while Amnesty International have said men condemned to death were tortured into making confessions.