CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi on Tuesday attended the funeral of Egypt’s top public prosecutor killed by a car bomb on the previous day, and said he would within days reveal legal reforms that would allow a tougher line against militants.
Public prosecutor Hisham Barakat was the most senior Egyptian official to be killed in years, and Monday’s attack has cast doubt on Egypt’s ability to contain an insurgency that is picking increasingly high-profile targets.
El-Sissi led the procession at Barakat’s military funeral held at a mosque on the outskirts of Cairo. At a ceremony attended by senior government and religious officials and members of Barakat’s family, El-Sissi said the militant threat in Egypt demanded urgent legal reforms.
“The hand of justice is tied by laws... We will not wait for that,” he said in comments broadcast on state television.
“We will not sit for five or 10 years putting on trial the people who kill us.”
The funeral fell on the second anniversary of the start of mass protests that preceded president Mohamed Mursi’s overthrow in July 2013 by the army, then under El-Sissi’s leadership.
In his address at the funeral, El-Sissi did not give details of his plans for legal reforms but said they would be unveiled “within days.”
“A death sentence will be issued, a death sentence will be implemented. A life sentence will be issued, a life sentence will be implemented,” he said.
El-Sissi toughens anti-terror stance
El-Sissi toughens anti-terror stance
US mediating prisoner exchange talks between Damascus and Druze: source to AFP
- The talks aim to “get the authorities to release 61 civilians from Sweida who have been detained,” held by the National Guard
- Aid trucks have entered the province several times since July
BEIRUT: The United States is leading negotiations between a prominent Druze leader and the Syrian government to secure an exchange of prisoners held since sectarian clashes in a Druze-majority Syrian province last year, a source with knowledge of the matter told AFP Tuesday.
Thousands are estimated to have been killed when clashes erupted between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes in the southern Sweida province in July.
The Syrian government in the capital Damascus said their forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses and monitors accused them of siding with the Bedouin.
The Druze source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that “there are currently negotiations mediated by the United States between Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri and the Damascus government.”
The talks aim to “get the authorities to release 61 civilians from Sweida who have been detained... since the events of July, in exchange for 30 personnel of the interior and defense ministries” held by the National Guard, the armed group that operates under prominent Druze leader Hijri.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting in Sweida left more than 2,000 people dead, including 789 Druze civilians who were “summarily executed by defense and interior ministry personnel.”
While a ceasefire was reached later in July, the situation remained tense and the province difficult to access.
Residents accuse Syrian authorities of imposing a siege on Sweida, which Damascus denies, and tens of thousands of people remain displaced from the violence.
Aid trucks have entered the province several times since July.
In August, dozens of small factions in Sweida announced they would join the National Guard, seeking to unify military efforts under Hijri, who is considered the Druze figure most hostile to Damascus.
Hijri has since demanded the creation of a separate region for his minority community, and has formed a de facto authority in Sweida city and its surrounding areas outside of the central government’s grasp.
Israel bombed Syria during the violence, striking the Syrian army headquarters and near the presidential palace, saying it was acting to defend the minority group.
