Egypt's president Sisi promises crackdown after state prosecutor killed in car bomb

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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to intensify an already searing police crackdown, the day after militants assassinated the country’s prosecutor general.

Mr Sisi’s comments came at the funeral for Hisham Barakat, who's killing was the most high profile incident of its sort in Egypt for more than two decades.

"The arm of justice is chained by the law. We're not going to wait for this. We're going to amend the law to allow us to implement justice as soon as possible," the Egyptian president said in a televised speech, at times shaking a clenched fist for added emphasis.

Mr Sisi’s promise to expedite cases - many of which involve secular activists with no known links to extremism - will concern human rights groups which have repeatedly criticised Egypt’s judicial system as flawed and politicised.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/11709058/Egypts-president-Sisi-promises-crackdown-after-state-prosecutor-killed-in-car-bomb.html

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1. A crackdown beyond the currently scheduled mass executions?

Perhaps collective punishment of entire communities?

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2. He sounds very upset.

I wouldn't put anything past him.

But then the guy that just got blown up was the head of his crackdown department as it was, so he may have to find a new guy first.

He better watch out if he tries to get the Army involved in his crackdown.

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3. 64 troops killed in militant attacks in Egypt's Sinai

Militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) attacked at least 10 security checkpoints and a police station in Egypt's North Sinai province, a security source told Al-Shorouk newspaper.

"At least 64 army and police personnel were killed in the terrorist attacks," the source was quoted as saying.

A group affiliated with ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Speaking via Twitter, the Welayet Sinai ("Province of Sinai&quot group said its militants had attacked more than 15 security checkpoints in North Sinai.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/19579-64-troops-killed-in-militant-attacks-in-egypts-sinai

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4. Sisi is pushing Egypt to the brink

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gave on Tuesday the clearest indication so far that he intends to hang the democratically elected president whose power he usurped. Railing against the inability of the state to deal with the militant insurgency he himself stoked, Sisi pledged legislation to allow his courts to dispense summary justice:

"The arm of justice is chained by the law. We're not going to wait for this. We're going to amend the law to allow us to implement justice as soon as possible ... Do courts in these circumstances work? Do these laws work? They work with normal people ... If there is a death sentence, a death sentence will be implemented ... the law! the law!"

Two years on from the coup which toppled him, Mohamed Morsi and 105 others, including 15 senior figures of the Muslim Brotherhood, are under the sentence of death. Sisi presides over a state which is failing before our eyes. Under his rule, Egypt is on a steep downward spiral of ever more ruthless repression which now includes Sri Lankan style "disappearances" and an increasingly active insurgency. If Sisi carries out his threat, the explosion in Egypt, a country of 90 million, half of them below the poverty line, will make Syria, Iraq and Libya seem insignificant in comparison.

No group has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Egypt's top prosecutor Hisham Barakat in a car bomb on Monday. But his death marks a blow to the authority of the regime he represented. Not since the speaker of the Egyptian parliament Rifaat al-Mahgoub was gunned down in 1990 has there been a killing of an official so prominent in the Egyptian state.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/sisi-pushing-egypt-brink-1919766540

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5. Caretaker prosecutor general appointed in Egypt - prosecution official

CAIRO, Jul 1 (Aswat Masriya) - A caretaker prosecutor general was appointed in Egypt on Wednesday, two days after the assassination of Egypt's top prosecutor, a prosecution official said.

Ali Omran, the public prosecution's director of judicial inspection, will carry out the tasks of the prosecutor general starting Wednesday.

Zakaria Abdel Aziz Othman, the assistant prosecutor general, said Omran was appointed as per the judiciary law, being the most senior prosecutor in the office.

A new prosecutor general will be officially appointed within days, Othman said.

http://en.aswatmasriya.com/news/view.aspx?id=2a619c5e-c4b6-41a0-8810-e845d6caafca

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6. Egypt cuts projected deficit to 8.9% in new 2015/2016 draft budget

Egypt has amended the draft budget for the 2015/2016 fiscal year to slash the projected deficit to 8.9 percent of GDP, according to a new budget statement published on the Ministry of Finance website.

An earlier draft which put the budget deficit at 9.9 percent had been rejected by Egypt's president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, on grounds that its target deficit was too high, according to media reports.

Officials have said that the government will continue to operate with the 2014/2015 budget until the budget for the current fiscal year, which began on Wednesday, is ratified by the president.

Projected public expenditure was cut to LE864 billion ($113 billion) from LE885 billion in the last draft, as wages were reduced by LE10 billion to total LE218 billion.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/134269/Business/Economy/Egypt-cuts-projected-deficit-to--in-new--draft-bud.aspx

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7. The Latest: Egyptian troops battling militants in Sinai

Egypt's military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir says the country's armed forces have targeted two militant gatherings in northern Sinai, completely destroying them.

Samir says on his official Facebook page that the Egyptian air force is "targeting terrorists on the ground as clashes continue."

He did not give a new death toll for militant casualties. At least 50 Egyptian soldiers have died in Wednesday's fighting, still underway.

Earlier, he said 22 militants were killed as the military fought back against the attackers. The clashes are the most intense in decades in the peninsula.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT_THE_LATEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-07-01-08-46-13

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8. . nt

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9. The Latest: Egypt raid kills 9 Brotherhood members in Cairo

Egyptian security officials say special forces killed nine members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including a former member of parliament, during a raid on a Cairo apartment.

Wednesday's raid came as Islamic militants launched a massive coordinated assault on Egyptian troops in the northern Sinai Peninsula that left at least 53 soldiers dead. It was not immediately clear if the incidents were related.

The officials said security forces came under fire when they entered the home in the Sixth of October suburb and returned fire, killing nine men, including Nasr al-Hafi, a former Brotherhood MP.

The officials say three automatic rifles and a hundred rounds of ammunition were found in the residence. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT_THE_LATEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-07-01-11-49-45