Cairo: Hundreds of activists Sunday attended the funeral of a leftist protester killed during a march in Cairo the day before, bringing the Egyptian government under criticism.
Colleagues of Shaima Al Sabagh, 32, accused police of fatally shooting her while she was participating Saturday in the rally to commemorate the anniversary of the 2011 revolt that deposed president Hosni Mubarak.
When her national flag-draped body left a mosque in her hometown in Alexandria on Sunday for burial, grief-stricken mourners chanted against the government and vowed retaliation, according to witnesses.
“Oh martyr rest in peace and we’ll continue your struggle!” Ahmad Salama, a witness quoting some mourners, said by phone.
“As the funeral procession neared Shaima’s burial site, some people chanted “down with the military rule’,” he said, referring to a slogan targeting the military, who toppled Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in 2013 following enormous street protests against his rule.
“Every time, police kill peaceful demonstrators and claim the ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) did. What do authorities take us for? Fools?” Hany Mustafa, an activist, said. “The government’s talk about investigations into the murder of Shaima is a mere ploy to quieten people. Until now, those who killed hundreds of protesters since the revolution against Mubarak have not been punished.”
Police denied accusations they had shot at Al Sabagah, a member of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, saying they used tear gas to break up the Saturday rally.
Online videos showed Al Sabagh falling on the ground after apparently shot in the face and a fellow protester carrying her. Al Sabagh later died in hospital.
Prosecution started a probe into her killing, according to state media. Chief prosecutor Hesham Barakat ordered the police force that dispersed the rally to be questioned too.
Al Sabagh’s death drew condemnations from leading leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.
“It is neither sensible nor acceptable that four years after the great Egyptian revolution, shedding the blood of peaceful Egyptians is allowed to continue,” Sabahi, a former presidential contender, wrote on his Facebook page.
He condemned what he called “excessive force” allegedly used by police in breaking up the rally.
Other politicians warned that Al Sabagh’s slaying could be “exploited” by Mursi’s Brotherhood in antagonizing secular pro-democracy campaigners against the government of President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi.
Dozens of activists have been arrested and jailed in recent months on charges of violating a law that heavily restricts street protests.
