Egypt acquits police officers of lawyer’s torture, murder

An Egyptian court has acquitted two police officers of charges of torturing and murdering a prominent lawyer in 2015.

Karim Hamdi was beaten to death at a Cairo police station in 2015 following a pro-democracy rally, with officials alleging he was part of the group. He died two days after his arrest sparking outrage amongst the country’s lawyers.

The two officers, a lieutenant colonel and captain with the national security service, were sentenced to five years in prison in December 2015, but yesterday successfully appealed the conviction.

Yesterday, Egypt’s prosecutor also referred some 278 terror suspects to a military court on charges of joining two breakaway Muslim Brotherhood factions.

Since the ousting of Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood has been banned and designated a terror organisation by the government. Hundreds endure unfair trials, with many subsequently sentenced to death; some six people were awarded the death sentence last month for their participation in protests in 2013.

Read: Egypt beefs up security outside metro stations after fare rise protests

The news of the overturned conviction comes amid controversy over a leaked video released last week that appears to show a child being executed at close range in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by an army officer, dating back to 2015.

In February Amnesty International condemned the escalating “human rights crisis” in Egypt in its annual World Report, citing the country’s endemic arbitrary arrests and detentions of hundreds, as well as the new legal restrictions imposed on NGOs and authorities turning a blind eye to torture.

Egypt has repeatedly criticised the findings of many NGOs accusing them of being deliberately “misleading” on human rights abuses.

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In September, the Egyptian government pledged to take action against Human Rights Watch after it released a damning report on state torture. The Egyptian Human Rights Committee denied the allegations, claiming that no political prisoners had ever reported incidents of torture. The foreign ministry also accused the NGO of bias, alleging it received support from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Two weeks later, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi told US officials in New York that human rights should not be judged from a Western perspective, arguing that Egypt had taken numerous measures to ensure the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens.

Read: Amnesty warns of humanitarian abuses in Egyptian prisons