Abu Dhabi: A Cairo criminal court has sentenced nine policemen to three years in prison for torturing a fish vendor to death in police custody at Cairo’s Al Amiriya police station late in 2016, local media reported.
The court acquitted the tenth and last defendant in the case of charges.
The policemen were referred to the criminal court over causing the death of 53-year-old Magdy Makeen after he was arrested during a brawl with a policeman.
A judicial source said that Makeen was arrested for possession of drugs.
An autopsy report by the state’s forensic medicine authority following the incident said the post-mortem examination revealed Makeen had been subject to torture, prosecutors added.
The policemen denied physically assaulting Makeen or the two other people who were arrested with him.
The interior ministry has stated that such violations represent isolated incidents, while critics believe that policemen act with impunity against some citizens.
In 2017, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi pledged to hold accountable policemen guilty of “violations” after a series of deaths in police custody, allegedly caused by torture, sparked public outcry.
