Court delays examining 67 challenges in Hisham Barakat assassination case to Sept 9

CAIRO - 26 August 2018: The Court of Cassation delayed to September 9 the examination of challenges submitted by 67 defendants in the case of the 2015 assassination of the country's prosecutor general Hisham Barakat.

The defendants are challenging their death and ten-year jail sentences.

In April, the same court turned down challenges by 46 defendants against their placement on terrorist lists.

Out of the 67 defendants, the criminal court had earlier sentenced 28 persons to death.

Barakat was killed in a car bomb attack targeting his convoy in Cairo on June 29, 2015. He was the highest-ranking state official to be killed by militants in a spate of attacks since the 2013 ouster of president Mohammed Morsi.

Investigations carried out by the supreme state security prosecution revealed that the defendants had prepared a booby-trapped vehicle to target the motorcade of the top prosecutor.

The public prosecution had charged the defendants with joining the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group, making bombs and sneaking into Egypt to carry out terrorist attacks after receiving training at the hands of Hamas movement.