Egypt executions: UK principally opposes death penalty

The U.K. principally oppose the executions of any death penalty, the British Foreign Office said Thursday, reacting to the reported execution of nine young people in Egypt.

"It is U.K. policy to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle," the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a written statement to Anadolu Agency.

Nine young people were reportedly executed on Wednesday after being convicted of assassinating Egypt's Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat in 2015.

Barakat was killed in June 2015 in Cairo when a car bomb struck his convoy.