Live
Audio Only
Egyptian president said he will change laws to ensure faster executions a day after the country's top prosecutor was killed in a car bombing
Egypt will speed up the executions of those on death row, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi told reporters at the funeral of Hisham Barakat Tuesday, the country’s top prosecutor who was killed in a car bombing Monday. Barakat had been a key government figure in orchestrating the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood party.
Newsletter
This wasn't one of these smaller IEDs we've been seeing in Egypt. Powerful bomb, sophisticated operation.
— Erin Cunningham (@erinmcunningham)
June 29, 201
"The arm of justice is chained by the law. We're not going to wait for this. We're going to amend the law to allow us to implement justice as soon as possible," an angry Sissi said in a televised speech surrounded by Barakat's mourning relatives.
Inmates on death row go through a lengthy appeal process before their execution takes place. Many of those on death row now belong to the banned Muslim Brotherhood party, including former and first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi. Many other leaders of the group are also on death row. Six member of the Muslim Brotherhood have been executed so far.
"If there is a death sentence, a death sentence will be implemented," Sisi said. "The law! The law! "We're not going to wait five or 10 years to try the people killing us," he said.
#Egypt state channels stopped all series and put #Quran/ Islamic series not for #Ramadan but for the rotten attorney general #Hisham_Barakat
— Malik Alsibai (@Sibai_Homs)
June 30, 201
Sissi, who served as the head of the military under Morsi, took over the government in a coup following July 2013 protests against Morsi and his party. He became the president of Egypt when he ran for office in June 2014. He won by more than 90 percent of the vote.
RELATED: Examining Egypt's Military Dictatorship
Since the ouster of Morsi, the country has remained without a sitting parliament making Sissi the only elected official who can amend and issue laws with decree.
So far, Sissi's rule, as the head of the coup regime and as the elected president, has seen a major crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood as well as other secular activists who were involved in the ouster of Egypt's long-serving dictator Hosni Mubarak, and were speaking out against Sissi's policies.
More than 1,400 Muslim Brotherhood members have been killed since the coup against Morsi. The group was forced to go underground after it was declared a terrorist organization by Egypt in December 2013.
#Hisham_Barakat having given go ahead for 2013 #Rabaa square clear out and subsequent protestor prosecutions https://t.co/HrluSUHG4m
— Emad Mostaque (@EMostaque)
June 30, 201
One of the highlights of the junta regime's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood party took place days after Morsi was ousted when his supporters organized a sit-in at a mosque at the Rabaa Square in Cairo.
At least 800 people were killed within hours when the police and the military troops opened live fire at the protesters.
During today's speech, Sissi announced that Rabba Square, the site of a state-backed masscre of mostly Brotherhood supporters, would be renamed after the dead prosecutor as he hinted that the perpetrators of the attack against him belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood.
However, the investigation into Barakat's assassination has not yet been concluded. An Islamic State group-affiliate group in Egypt had assumed the responsibility for a similar failed assassination attempt against the former interior minister in 2013.
Head of #Egypt's Judges Club: Council of Ministers has just approved a proposal to rename #Rabia Square to Martyr #Hisham_Barakat Square.
— Soraya Bahgat (@SorayaBahgat)
June 30, 201
