Medical and judicial sources and state media have confirmed the death, though there has been no confirmed claim of responsibility for the attack. Security sources said a bomb in a parked car was remotely detonated as Mr Barakat’s convoy passed by. Mr Barakat's place of work was also targeted earlier this year when a bomb exploded near the High Court in central Cairo, killing two people.

Judiciary targeted

Judges and other state officials are increasingly the targets of radical Islamists opposed to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and angered by lengthy prison sentences handed to members of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Earlier in May, three judges were shot dead in the northern Sinai city of al-Arish and last month the leader of the group Sinai Province, the Islamic State militant group’s Egypt affiliate, encouraged followers to attack judges. On Sunday, the group’s media arm published a video titled Eliminating the Judges that purported to show gunmen firing into a vehicle transporting judges, though Reuters was unable to verify its authenticity.

Accused of bias

The Egyptian judiciary claims it is independent of the military and government, but some of the country’s judges have been accused of blatant bias by imposing lengthy jail terms and mass death sentences on militant Islamists. Source:  Reuters