Egypt sentences 9 to death over prosecutor’s death

CAIRO

Egypt’s highest appellate court on Sunday upheld the death sentence against nine people over the 2015 killing of the country’s prosecutor-general.

The Court of Cassation confirmed the penalty after being convicted in the death of Hisham Barakat, who was killed in a car bombing in eastern Cairo, according to the official MENA news agency.

The son of senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Taha Wahdan was among those condemned to death.

The court also commuted the death sentence against six other defendants to life in prison.

Egypt was roiled by turmoil when the military deposed Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, in a 2013 coup.

Barakat was the highest Egyptian official to have been killed in a militant attack since 2013.