TWO EGYPTIAN policemen accused by human rights activists of beating to death a 28-year-old man went on trial yesterday, charged with the lesser offences of using excessive force and illegal arrest.
Hundreds of riot police cordoned off the court in Alexandria, while dozens of protesters carried pictures of the dead man, Khaled Said, and chanted slogans accusing police of terrorism.
Said died in June after the two plainclothes officers dragged him from an internet cafe and banged his head against a staircase. His family said he might have been killed because he possessed a video of police sharing the spoils of a drugs seizure.
Young activists turned Said into a symbol in a country where human rights groups say torture is widespread. Of the scores of cases of police brutality each year, only a handful result in legal action.
In May, President Hosni Mubarak secured the renewal of emergency legislation that gives police extensive powers. It has been in force for 29 years.
Said has been dubbed “the martyr of the emergency law”.
On the eve of the trial, one potential witness was assaulted by nine people brandishing knives and told to stop his “interference”.
Amnesty International said: “If justice is to be done in this case, the Egyptian authorities must ensure that the witnesses to [Said’s] beating, as well as the dead man’s family and those working to bring out the truth, are protected from threats, violence and intimidation and feel able to freely testify.” If convicted, the policemen face three to 15 years in jail.
Egypt is going through a particularly sensitive moment before parliamentary polls in the autumn, and presidential elections next year. It is not clear whether Mr Mubarak (82) will seek another term. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010)