Egypt police officers accused of beating man to death
Egypt has ordered nine policemen accused of beating to death a man within an hour of his arrest in November to face criminal charges, after authorities vowed a crackdown on police abuses.
The accused, including three lieutenants and a captain, were arrested last week in an investigation into the death of the 47-year-old at a police station in the southern city of Luxor.
Their arrests came amid at least two investigations into deaths in police custody, and after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi last week warned that police officers found guilty of "committing mistakes" would be punished. His comments echoed previous statements about police abuse.
"The prosecutor general ordered the nine policemen to face a criminal trial," an official at Luxor prosecutor's office told the AFP news agency on Thursday.
They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the charges, which include participating in the beating, approving it or not preventing it.
The man died within an hour of being taken to a police station after being arrested at a cafe in Luxor on 26 November.
A forensic report revealed that he had been beaten on the neck and back, the official MENA news agency reported last week.
The judicial source said the date of the trial had yet to be fixed. In a separate case, a police officer was sentenced to five years in jail for beating a prisoner to death.
A court source said Mohamed Atef Merhi was jailed on Thursday for beating a drug suspect to death in the Nile delta town of Rashid.
Rights groups regularly accuse Egyptian police and members of the secret police of abusing and torturing prisoners.
Police abuses under former president Hosni Mubarak were a key factor for the 2011 uprising that led to his removal in a popular revolution.
One of the triggers of the revolt was the case of a young man, Khaled Saeed, tortured to death by police after his arrest in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
Saeed's death galvanised protests against Mubarak after pictures emerged online of the 28-year-old's beaten face.
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