Egypt to try policeman for vet's death in custody

An Egyptian policeman will go on trial for beating a veterinarian to death in custody, a judicial official said Sunday, after three sentences were handed down this month in similar cases.

Prosecutors ordered Mohamed Ibrahim to be tried after charging him with killing the vet in November in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya.

Ibrahim is also charged with illegally detaining the victim and of forging official documents to falsely accuse them of being a drug dealer.

Rights groups regularly accuse the regular police and secret police of abusing and torturing detainees.

Earlier this month, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned that police officers found guilty of "committing mistakes" would be punished.

On Saturday, a court in the Nile Delta city of Tanta sentenced in absentia two policemen to life in jail for killing Ismail Abdelhamid in October last year.

On December 12, two secret policemen were jailed for five years for beating to death an imprisoned lawyer in a Cairo police station in February.

That verdict came two days after an officer was sentenced to five years for beating to death a suspect in a drug case in the Nile delta town of Rashid.

In a separate case, 13 policemen are to stand trial next month over the death of a man in custody in the southern city of Luxor in November.

Police abuses under former president Hosni Mubarak were a key factor for the 2011 uprising that led to his ouster.

One of the triggers of the revolt was the case of Khaled Saeed, a young man tortured to death by police after his arrest in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Mubarak was succeeded in 2012 by the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, who lasted a year in power before his ouster by the army following massive rallies demanding his resignation.

Morsi's overthrow unleashed a deadly crackdown on his supporters in which hundreds have been killed and thousands detained, and accusations of ill treatment in prisons are common.

The interior ministry has said it does not condone torture but that there have been "individual" cases of abuse.
Source: AFP