Court upholds listing 46 defendants as terrorists over Barakat's murder

CAIRO – 19 April 2018: Cairo’s Court of Cassation upheld on Thursday a primary ruling to list 46 defendants as terrorists, over the killing of former Attorney General Hisham Barakat.

During its session on Thursday, Egypt’s top court of appeals rejected a challenge filed by the 46 defendants to cancel their terror designation.

In July 2017, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 28 defendants to death, accused of being involved in the assassination of Barakat.

The court also sentenced 15 defendants in the same case to life imprisonment, eight defendants to 15 years in prison and 15 defendants to 10 years in prison.

The defendants are facing other charges that include being associated with Palestinian militant group Hamas, aiming to foment instability in the country and illegally possessing firearms.

Barakat was assassinated on June 29, 2015, when a car bomb detonated in his car outside his home in Cairo’s Heliopolis neighborhood.