Former Egyptian VP calls for abolition of death penalty

Former Egyptian Vice-President Mohamed ElBaradei has decried Egypt's frequent resort to capital punishment and has called for the abolition of the practice.

He made the assertion a day after the Egyptian authorities executed nine people for alleged involvement in the 2015 assassination of Attorney-General Hisham Barakat.

"The death penalty is irreversible," ElBaradei tweeted, going on to assert that the practice had been "universally rejected".

"More than 170 countries have abolished capital punishment, either legislatively or in practice," he said. "Less than 40 countries still use it."

ElBaradei briefly served as vice-president following Egypt's 2013 military coup, which led to the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader.

The nine men executed on Wednesday had been among 28 people sentenced to death in 2017 for alleged involvement in Barakat's murder.

Earlier this month, the Egyptian authorities put six people to death in two different cases for the murder of a senior police officer and the son of a prominent judge.