A verdict is expected on 26 February in the current military trial of the Muslim Brothers leaders. My solidarity goes to Khairat el-Shatter and all the Islamist detainees.
Continuous updates on the kangaroo trial and prison conditions, here.
Tag: courts
6 pigs to be prosecuted
From Reuters:
One of the highest courts in Egypt has overturned the acquittal of three police officers and an undercover detective who had been charged with torturing a man to death 13 years ago, court officials said on Sunday.
A criminal court had acquitted the four but the Court of Cassation ordered a retrial after an appeal from the public prosecution, the officials said, speaking on a customary condition of anonymity.
Prosecutors accused the men of torturing Abdallah Ibrahim to death while trying to extract a confession from him in a murder case.
The ruling is the latest in a series of high-profile cases where some Egyptian prosecutors and courts have taken a tougher line on police torture.
International and local rights groups say torture is systematic in Egyptian jails and police stations. Past victims have reported receiving electric shocks and beatings.
And in other developments, Reuters also reports:
Egyptian prosecutors on Saturday charged two policemen with murdering a man by throwing him off a balcony in Cairo, security sources said.
A security source gave the policemen’s names as Maher Hassan and Hassan Sobhi, and said prosecutors had accused them of killing Nasr Gadallah, 37 in August last year.
Forensic examination of Gadallah confirmed he had died of the impact, but offered no opinion as to whether he was pushed or jumped, as the two policemen say.
Gadallah’s case is one of a number of high profile cases of suspected police abuse that gained wide-spread attention after a video circulated on the Internet last year showing a man being sodomised with a stick in a Cairo police station.
Two policemen were later sentenced to three years in prison for torture in that case.
Rights group skeptical of court’s stance on Qursaya
From the Daily News Egypt:
A rights group representing families from the threatened island of El-Qorsaya has questioned the neutrality of the court hearing the case.
Residents of El-Qorsaya received eviction notices last year, when bulldozers under army protection began work on one side of the island.
Islanders suspect that their homes will make way for a tourist complex or golf course and have responded by challenging the eviction order in a case against four government bodies including the Prime Minister and the governor of Giza.
Hearings in the case began last Sunday, Jan. 13. The Egyptian Center for Housing Rights (ECHR) alleges that the 2nd District Administrative Court, which heard the case, demonstrated clear bias against the islanders.