El-Sissi toughens anti-terror stance

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi on Tuesday attended the funeral of Egypt’s top public prosecutor killed by a car bomb on the previous day, and said he would within days reveal legal reforms that would allow a tougher line against militants.
Public prosecutor Hisham Barakat was the most senior Egyptian official to be killed in years, and Monday’s attack has cast doubt on Egypt’s ability to contain an insurgency that is picking increasingly high-profile targets.
El-Sissi led the procession at Barakat’s military funeral held at a mosque on the outskirts of Cairo. At a ceremony attended by senior government and religious officials and members of Barakat’s family, El-Sissi said the militant threat in Egypt demanded urgent legal reforms.
“The hand of justice is tied by laws... We will not wait for that,” he said in comments broadcast on state television.
“We will not sit for five or 10 years putting on trial the people who kill us.”
The funeral fell on the second anniversary of the start of mass protests that preceded president Mohamed Mursi’s overthrow in July 2013 by the army, then under El-Sissi’s leadership.
In his address at the funeral, El-Sissi did not give details of his plans for legal reforms but said they would be unveiled “within days.”
“A death sentence will be issued, a death sentence will be implemented. A life sentence will be issued, a life sentence will be implemented,” he said.