Nine Police Officers Bag Jail Term For Torturing Fish Seller To Death

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced nine policemen to three years in jail for torturing a fish seller to death, a judicial source said.

The sentencing is a relatively rare case of officers facing justice in a country where security services are often accused of abuse.

Magdy Makin, a 50-year-old Coptic Christian fish vendor, was detained by police at their station in November 2016.

Shortly afterwards, his family received his corpse, which bore signs of torture.

An autopsy report showed Makin suffered blood clots in his lungs due to intense pressure of someone standing on his back.

The case originally involved 10 policemen, but one was acquitted.

Nine others were tried on charges of torturing Makin to death, as well as forging his arrest report.

“The defendants can appeal the sentence,” the source added.

Rights groups have regularly accused Egyptian security services of practising abuses and torture, allegations the interior ministry has systematically denied.

Police brutality helped fuel the 2011 popular uprising that ousted longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

[AFP]