CAIRO: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi called Tuesday for amending the Criminal Code to expedite the application of death penalties and sentences of life in prison, saying “justice is chained by the laws.”
“We cannot wait for five or ten years to prosecute the people who kill us and order (the killing) in their cage while we are carrying out the law,” Sisi said during the funeral of late Attorney-General Hisham Barakat, who was assassinated Monday in a car bomb attack.
Sisi called on judges to submit amendments to criminal laws in the coming few days to “confront terrorism” in Egypt, saying “we will carry out the law and if a death penalty was ruled, it should be carried out… and life sentences will be executed right now and will not wait for tomorrow.”
Sisi led a military funeral held at the Field Marshall Tantawy mosque in New Cairo Tuesday; it was attended by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, Minister of Defense Sedki sobhi, Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel ghafar, Cabinet members and a number of media professionals and public figures, amid high security measures.
Minister of Justice Ahmed al-Zend told On My Responsibility talk show of the Sada al-Balad channel that he will submit a number of legal amendments at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday to shorten the litigation time of “terrorism cases and trials.”
Giza Popular Resistance, a group that has posted on its Facebook page pictures of blocking, burning tires and police vehicles, claimed responsibility for the attack. Its Facebook page now does not exist.
Meanwhile, Amnesty international slammed Sisi in a Tuesday report for “targeting Egypt’s youth activists” and “crushing an entire generation’s hopes for a brighter future.”
Amnesty called on the Egyptian government not to respond to Barakat’s assassination with “further repression” of protesters and activists in light of the number now held in prison.