Policeman gets 5 years for protester deaths

An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a policemen to five years in prison for killing protesters, in a retrial that overturned an initial death sentence in absentia, judicial sources said. Mohammed Ibrahim was convicted of shooting at demonstrators and killing 18 of them outside a police station on January 28, 2011, when protesters torched police stations nationwide in a revolt that later forced president Hosni Mubarak from power. The court is expected to explain later its decision to punish Ibrahim with a relatively short prison term. He had earlier been sentenced to death in absentia, but was granted a retrial after handing himself in. On May 22, a Cairo court sentenced five policemen to 10 years in jail in absentia for killing protesters during the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak on February 11. Ten policemen were acquitted in the same case. Mubarak, his interior minister Habib al-Adly and six security chiefs are on trial for their role in the hundreds of killings during the uprising. Their verdict is expected on June 2.