Egyptian court recommends death penalty for 31 in prosecutor assassination case

CAIRO: A Cairo criminal court on Saturday recommended the death penalty for 31 people convicted of involvement in the 2015 assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor, the most senior state official killed by militants in recent years.

The court set a verdict session for July 22, after referring its recommendation to the country’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding legally required opinion.

Public Prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed by a car-bomb attack on his convoy in Cairo two years ago, an operation for which Egypt blamed the Muslim Brotherhood and Gaza-based Hamas militants, though both groups have denied the charge.