Cairo court upholds death sentences in murder case

An Egyptian court has upheld death sentences for nine people convicted of the murder of a top prosecutor in a car bombing three years ago. Hisham Barakat was killed in June 2015 when a bomb struck his convoy in Cairo after jihadist calls for attacks on the judiciary to avenge a crackdown on Islamists. Two years later a criminal court sentenced 28 people to death for their involvement in his murder, with only 15 defendants present in court for the verdict at the time. A report on the News24 site notes that the Court of Cassation has now confirmed the death sentence for nine of the 15, while reducing the sentences of the six others to life imprisonment.