Egypt prosecutor-general dies of injuries in Cairo bombing

Egypt’s prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat died Monday after succumbing to injuries he sustained in a car bombing in eastern Cairo.

Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported that Barakat died in hospital after being injured in the blast.

Barakat was injured earlier on Monday when a car bomb exploded as his motorcade passed near a military academy in eastern Cairo.

“He died after suffering internal bleeding,” Health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar told Anadolu Agency.

A shadowy group calling itself the “Popular Resistance in Giza” claimed responsibility for the attack.

Barakat became Egypt’s prosecutor-general in July 2013 after the resignation of his predecessor Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud, who was sacked by former President Mohamed Morsi.

Monday’s attack comes on the eve of the second anniversary of the June 30 protests, which ended in Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, being overthrown in a military coup on July 3, 2013.

Egypt has been dogged by instability ever since as the authorities have carried out a relentless crackdown on dissent that has mainly targeted the ousted president’s supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands behind bars.