Fourteen Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) have condemned the assassination of Egyptian Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat on Monday, expressing their sincere condolences to his family and a speedy recovery for the injured victims.
The NGOs said the crime came at a time when open declarations were made by militants that judges and law officials would be targeted, requiring the state to take the necessary steps to face these actions.
The organizations have suggested opening a public and transparent investigation to unveil the circumstances of the crime, without resorting to inappropriate exceptional procedures, which usually fail to catch the real criminals and do not achieve justice.
“A committed investigation into this issue, with strict adherence to the law, would honor the souls of those who lost their lives,” the report said.
The NGOs expressed their worry over the alarmingly quick succession of assassinations which has recently taken place in the heart of the state’s capital. They see the crime as a result of increasingly dominant religious thought and sectarianism, which have been accumulating for years in official state organizations and have been supported by specific political trends.
“The prosecutor general's assassination represents a turning point, and we should learn from history. It’s not logical that the official response to this situation is to return to the same options that ended in this situation,” the report read.
The organizations believe that the popular demands for further repressive procedures, such as applying the new anti-terrorism law or amending the legal sanctions and criminal proceedings, including expanding the scope of suspicion to unprecedented rates, will hinder the possibility of actually catching the criminals.
The 14 NGOs that participated in this report include, the National Group for Human Rights and Law, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement and the Human Rights Association for the Prisoners' Assistance.
