Egypt jails 6 ex-policemen for torture, murder

An Egyptian court today slapped six former police officers with prison terms after finding them guilty of torturing a man to death in 2012, according to a local judicial source.

“Western Cairo’s Giza criminal court sentenced one former police officer to five years in prison; four former police officers to three years each; and a former police director to one year behind bars,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Anadolu Agency.

All six convicted police officers had worked at the main police station in Giza at the time of the incident.

According to the source, the six were convicted of “arresting a citizen without justification at the Giza police station and torturing him to death” in 2012.

The sentence is subject to appeal.

The case was the second of its kind this week.

Disappearance and torture

On Monday, three other Egyptian police officers were formally charged with “involvement in the torture of a young man to death during his detention”.

According to a report issued last July by rights watchdog Amnesty International, “hundreds” of people have been subject to forcible disappearance and torture at the hands of Egyptian security personnel since the beginning of 2015.

According to the report, these repressive practices do not only target political activists, but also students and young people, including minors.

The report documented cases of people who had been forcibly disappeared and subject to torture – including beatings and electric shocks – in order to force them to sign false confessions.

Since Egypt’s bloody 2013 military coup, authorities have cracked down on dissent, killing hundreds and throwing tens of thousands behind bars.