Hisham Barakat: Egypt state prosecutor killed in Cairo bomb attack

by Benson Agoha | Middle East

Hisham Barakat dies after suffering from "internal bleeding" following a bomb attack in Cairo's Heliopolis district.

Killed: Hisham Barakat.
(Credit: via Graphic Online)

What was initially reported as treatment from flying glass following a bomb attack has turned out to be death of Egypt's public prosecutor, Hisham Barakat. He was hurt in an apparent bomb attack on his car in Cairo, earlier today. 

According to Graphic Online, the prosecutor was initially being treated for injuries from flying glass, a police official told AFP news agency. His two bodyguards were also injured in the attack, which targeted the vehicle in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.

Mr Barakat has referred thousands of Islamists to trial since the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 and had reportedly received death threats in the past.

Graphic Online said the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group recently called for attacks on the judiciary, after the hanging of six militants.

Later, Aljazeerah reported that the state prosecutor was killed after his motorcade was hit by a bomb blast in the capital Cairo.

Aljazeerah confirmed an earlier report that Barakat had been suffering from "internal bleeding" and that he was undergoing surgery on Monday at the Nozha hospital in the Egyptian capital.

Thousands of followers of former President Morsi who was removed from office after only one year have been jailed or sentenced to death following their parts in violent protests and riots that rocked Egypt from August 2011.

The former President has also been sentenced to death for his parts in violent riots and killings in Egypt.

Egypt has since sentenced Morsi, and hundred of his supporters, to death, in mass trials that have been condemned by rights groups.

* by Benson Agoha (with contribution from Aljazeerah and Graphic Online)