A Cairo court on Wednesday rejected appeals by two policemen, upholding 10-year jail sentence over the torturing to death of Alexandria native Khaled Said, whose murder in June 2010 galvanised the protest movement that led the outbreak of the 25 January revolution, a judicial source told Ahram Online.

The decision by the Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest criminal court and legal authority, is final and cannot be appealed.

The pair were sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011.

In a retrial in March 2014 after an appeal, they were sentenced the defendants to 10 years in jail.

The case of 28-year-old said had ignited public anger and became a rallying cry against former autocrat Hosni Mubarak, as photographs of his disfigured face circulated online.

Said was reportedly targeted after he posted an internet video footage ostensibly showing policemen sharing the spoils of a drug bust.

A Facebook page set up in his memory--"We are all Khaled Said"--focused on human rights abuses by police, spearheading calls, along with other groupings, for protests during the 18-day uprising in 2011 that swept Mubarak from power.

The government's forensic authority had said that Said died after he choked on a packet of drugs. 

Police forces, long accused of brutality and rights violations under Mubarak, are now lionised by much of the masses who supported the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and back a crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group.

The court ruling comes as a rare court indictment of police officers accused of brutality following a series of acquittals of security personnel over killings of protesters during the 2011 revolt.