Interior Ministry: Prosecutor general assassination executed in coordination with Hamas

Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat was killed by Muslim Brotherhood members in coordination with the Palestinian Hamas, Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar said in a press conference Sunday.

Barakat’s assassination came as part of a wider plan exposed by the National Security Agency to assassinate some of the state’s top figures and target state institutions, he added. The plan was led by Muslim Brotherhood members who have fled to Turkey, in coordination with Hamas, which helped the Brotherhood form and train armed groups.

Barakat was assassinated in a car bombing last June, in an unprecedented attack that marked an escalation in armed attacks. The explosion damaged 35 cars in the area, as well as the entrances of nine shops and one home. The Interior Minister said that the car bomb was detonated by remote control.

Abdel Ghaffar added that five members of the Muslim Brotherhood had snuck into Gaza to receive military training under Hamas in order to execute the assassination.

On Sunday, the Interior Ministry said it arrested 14 people in coordination with the attack, and released a video showing confessions by alleged Muslim Brotherhood members. In the video, the members recount how they joined of the group, their participation in Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins and their coordination with Hamas to plan the attack.  

All confessions pointed to Yehia Moussa as the orchestrator of the attack. Moussa was the Health Ministry spokesperson during Mohamed Morsi’s rule and is now based in Turkey.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Muslim Brotherhood denied involvement in the attack, saying this is part of the Interior Ministry’s efforts to “demonize” the group.

“They are trying to cover up their own crimes, especially the killing of hundreds of good Egyptian youths and Italian student Giulio Regeni,” Abdel Mawgood Dardery, spokesperson for the Freedom and Justice Party's Foreign Relations Committee, said.

In another statement, Hamas denied and deplored Egypt’s accusations, saying they are not in line with “efforts to develop relations between Hamas and Cairo.”

The movement called on Egypt to take responsibility and not drag Hamas’ name into internal Egyptian conflicts.