
Lawyer Mohamed Khalil who was shot dead y a policeman in April (Photo courtesy of 'We are All Mohamed Khalil' Facebook page)
A Cairo criminal court sentenced a police officer on Monday to 15 years in prison for shooting dead a suspect in detention.
Prosecution investigations showed that the police officer, Ahmed El-Tayyeb, had had previous altercations with the deceased man, lawyer Mohamed Khalil, 32.
El-Tayyeb saw Khalil entering Imbaba Police Station in April to post bail for a suspect, so he arrested him, prosecutors said.
The police officer accompanied the lawyer to a detention cell, where a fistfight broke out between the two, resulting in the police officer killing the lawyer by shooting him in the chest, stomach and back.
The prosecution also stated that the deceased had been subject to an arrest warrant for charges of rioting and protesting without a permit.
The death of Khalil, a popular figure in the working class district, prompted protests by locals.
The ruling can still be appealed.
The sentence was one of the toughest against security personnel in recent years amid a series of acquittal of dozens of policemen on charges of violence against civilians and protesters.
In one of the landmark verdicts against police, a Cairo court in March handed 10-year jail terms to two policemen for slaying a young activist, Khaled Said, whose 2010 death helped ignite a popular revolt a year later that unseated longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Said's case, with photographs of his disfigured face circulated online, had galvanised anger and became a rallying cry against police brutality under Mubarak. A Facebook page set up in his memory spearheaded calls for the protests during the 18-day uprising in January 2011.
Under Mubarak, rights groups accused the police of widespread torture and abuse. The recent acquittals of security personnel have raised fears of a slide back into police impunity, pervasive under the former strongman.
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