Protesters demand justice after Egypt police kill young man

Protests have broken out in the streets outside Munib Police Station in Giza after demonstrators accused police of killing a young man named as Islam the Australian.

“We want justice for Islam,” demonstrators chanted. “The Interior Ministry are thugs.”

عايزين حقك يا إسلام .. الداخلية بلطجية .. الاهالي يتظاهرون في الشوارع المجاورة لنقطة شرطة المنيب بالجيزة مطالبين بحق الشاب اسلام والذي قتل على يد ظباط شرطة حسب روايتهم pic.twitter.com/OqLGwo2gDz

— Amr Elqazaz (@amrsalama) September 7, 2020

تجمعات لمواطنين من أحد المباني أمام نقطة شرطة المنيب بالجيزة pic.twitter.com/zCdgzWcOjg

— Amr Elqazaz (@amrsalama) September 7, 2020

In one video, it’s possible to see security officers cordoning off the station to keep the protesters away.

تطويق أمني لنقطة شرطة المنيب بالجيزة خوفا من تجمعات المواطنين احتجاجا على مقتل شاب على يد ظباط شرطة pic.twitter.com/ksVa4xIX2r

— Amr Elqazaz (@amrsalama) September 7, 2020

According to reports, Islam was killed after an altercation between him and police.

The governor of Giza was being escorted in Munib by police from the station in question, when one of them tried to remove an awning which was shading Islam from the sun.

READ: Psychiatrist dies in Egypt’s Scorpion Prison after arrest in reprisal for journalist brother

When he objected, a police officer insulted him and his mother, and when Islam objected to having his mother subjected to abuse, the officer assaulted him then took him to the police station where he died at the hands of the police.

Egypt witnessed a popular uprising in 2011 which was fuelled by anger at the culture of police brutality and intimidation, underscored at the time by the death of Khaled Saeed, who was beaten in a stairwell in Alexandria. Pictures of his disfigured corpse circulated widely on social media.

Despite this, since the 2013 coup, police impunity and brutality have escalated. Last September, Karim Al-Khawaja, 45, died at the hands of police in a station in the Giza governorate.

In 2016 demonstrators marched outside the police headquarters after a taxi driver was shot in the head by a plain clothes police officer in Cairo.

In 2018 Mohamed Abdel Hakim, known as Afroto, was beaten and tortured inside Mokattam police station. Protesters attempted to storm the police station where he was murdered.