Twitter reacts violently to Barakat assassination

Blog: Social media users reacted to the death of Egypt's top prosecutor by calling for Brotherhood members sentenced to death to be hastily hanged in revenge.

Narrated

2 min read

Alex Wright

07 Jul, 2015

Police stand guard next to the scene of the assassination [Getty]

In the aftermath of the assassination of Egyptian Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat, social media users and local pro-government talk show hosts have called for the death sentences handed down to imprisoned Muslim Brotherhood members to be carried out as soon as possible.

Despite the Brotherhood condemning the killing, and with no evidence presented to show its complicity, Egyptian Twitter users launched an Arabic-language hashtag translating to Execute the Brotherhood members in prison, calling for the leadership of the banned Islamist group sentenced to death in mass trials, including the former president, Mohammad Morsi, to be immediately sent to the gallows.

One Twitter user said: "I hope I'll see the traitor Morsi hanging from the hangman's noose this Eid so I can celebrate twice."

Another said: "The imprisonment of the Brotherhood's leadership is keeping them alive. Execute them or let them loose so the people can do it themselves."

An Emirati user added: "Your end is near, you enemies of Islam and humanity."

The eye-for-an-eye rhetoric was also repeated by popular talk show host Lamis al-Hadidy.

"We need to speed up all the outstanding death sentences to avenge the death of Hisham Barakat," she said.

We need to speed up all the outstanding death sentences to avenge the death of Hisham Barakat

Lamis al-Hadidy

Egypt's State Information Service has accused the Brotherhood of carrying out the state prosecutor's assassination in an online statement.

"As a part of its maintained terrorist approach, the Muslim Brotherhood group on Monday morning killed the chief prosecutor while on his way to his office, leaving also several other innocent citizens injured," it said, without offering proof.

The Brotherhood released a statement strongly condemning the killing, calling it a "horrid crime".

The Brotherhood's official Twitter account also tweeted: "We affirm that violence will not end, except by achieving justice, toppling this illegitimate regime and allowing Egypt to be free."

The message was met with widespread condemnation.

On Monday 29 June, Barakat was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, after a powerful explosion struck his convoy near his home in Cairo, in the first assassination of a senior official since then-head of parliament, Rifaat al-Mahgoub, was shot dead in his car in 1990.

At least 1,400 people, mostly Islamist supporters, have been killed in a police crackdown on protests, and much of the Brotherhood's leadership has been arrested since Morsi's overthrow in 2013.