Egyptian authorities executed nine suspected Muslim Brotherhood members convicted of the involvement in the assassination of Egypt's top prosecutor Hisham Barakat.

The executions by hanging were carried out on Wednesday in a Cairo prison.

In November, Egypt's top appeals court confirmed death sentences for the nine people convicted in then-chief prosecutor Barakat'smurder in June 2015, when a car bomb exploded near his convoy as he drove through the capital.

An interior ministryofficial, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief media, told The Associated Press the families of the men were told to pick up their bodies from a Cairo morgue.

A total of 15 people have been executed in Egypt since the start of the year.

"As these latest executions show, President [Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi's use of the death penalty is now a full-blown human rights crisis," Reprieve Director Maya Foa said in a statement.

She noted under Sisi at least 12 juveniles have received preliminary death sentences and 1,451 have been confirmed.Torture, false confessions, and the repeated use of mass trials are now widespread in the country.

"It is shocking that these abuses continue unabated while the international community remains silent," said Foa. (Aljazeera)