9 Egypt policemen sentenced in torturing vendor to death

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced nine police officers to three years in prison after ir conviction for beating to death a street vendor held at a police station. Cairo Criminal Court also acquitted a police officer in case that dates back to vember 2016 when 53-year-old Magdy Maken, a fish cart vendor, was arrested after an altercation with a policeman in Cairo’s middle-class neighborhood of el-Ameriyah.

Hours after his arrest, Maken’s lifeless body was brought to a nearby hospital with "torture marks,” his lawyer Ali al-Halawani told Associated Press at time. defendants, including a police captain, collapsed in courtroom, and some of m cried after judge uttered verdict. Saturday’s verdict can be appealed before a higher court.

death of Coptic Christian Maken triggered public outr over police abuse at time. Anger at police brutality helped spark 2011 uprising, and rights groups say mistreatment and torture are still widespre in Egyptian prisons, allegations government largely denies.

On Thursday, Italian prosecutors formally put four high-ranking members of Egypt’s security forces under investigation over 2016 kidnapping, torture and killing of Giulio Regeni, an Italian doctoral research student in Cairo.

four suspects are being investigated for alleged kidnapping and one of m also is being investigated for aggravated injury and aggravated murder, while investigation against ar member of Egypt’s national security force was shelved due to insufficient proof.

Egyptian prosecutors have insisted that Regeni’s killer remains unkwn, with authorities alleging that Cambridge University doctoral student fell victim to ordinary robbers.