Cairo: An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced a policeman to life in prison for shooting dead a driver in the street in February, a case that sparked mass protests against police abuses.
The ruling was issued by the Cairo Criminal Court against the policeman identified as Mustafa Mahmoud.
The court convicted Mahmoud of using his official gun in murdering driver Mohammad Sayed Ali in a dispute over fares.
The ruling can be appealed.
On hearing the verdict, relatives of the driver erupted in raptures. Some of them knelt on the floor of the courtroom in a gesture of joy and appreciation.
The driver’s killing prompted hundreds of Egyptians on February 18 to protest outside the Cairo security headquarters against alleged widespread police brutality.
In response, President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi ordered the Interior Ministry, in charge of police, to submit proposals to parliament for toughening penalties against policemen found guilty of human rights abuses.
In recent months, rights groups and the opposition have claimed widespread abuses by security agencies in Egypt.
The nation’s doctors have held a series of protests since February after two colleagues were allegedly beaten by policemen at a state hospital in Cairo.
The government says that police violations are “isolated acts” and wrongdoers are punished.
Several policemen are being tried in separate cases on charges of torturing suspects to death and committing other rights violations.
Police brutality was a key driving force for a 2011 popular uprising that eventually forced long-standing president Hosni Mubarak to step down.
