The Alexandria Criminal Court has sentenced on Monday two policemen to ten years in jail for torturing Khaled Saeed to death in 2010.
The 28-year-old Saeed is labeled as the iconic figure of the Egyptian revolution whose murder was a rallying point for activists campaigning against widespread police brutality under the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, leading up to the 25th January revolution that led to Mubarak’s ouster.
The two defendants, Mahmoud Salah Mahmoud and Awad Ismail Suliman, were sentenced to seven years in jail in October 2011. After filing an appeal, the two men were facing a retrial on 1 June 2013 and received even tougher penalty.
The two low-ranking policemen were accused of unreasonably arresting Saeed and beating him to death in the city of Alexandria.
At the court hearing, verbal altercations took place between the defendants’ families and security, prompting the judge to evacuate the courtroom, only permitting lawyers and the media to remain.
Although there have been many cases of torture and deaths resulting from torture, Khaled Saeed’s case gained unprecedented attention because “he was tortured to death in Alexandria’s streets in the public eye rather than in an isolated area like a detention cell,” said Saeed’s attorney Mahmoud Afifi said.
Hamdy Khalef, human rights lawyer based in Alexandria said the defendants were being tried on charges of torture to death and using violence. The sentence handed down for such a charge ranges from three to 15 years in prison.
Authorities long denied that Saeed was tortured to death, with successive forensic reports and official statements claiming he had choked on a packet of drugs he swallowed to hide it from the approaching policemen.
Zahra Saeed, sister of Khaled Saeed said on Facebook that she “was expecting an execution penalty.” Yet, she is happy with the final verdict as the judge confirmed that the policemen tortured her brother in contrast to claims of Mubarak regime that Khaled swallowed the package of marijuana.
Saeed’s mother said, “Khaled now is at rest in his grave after the truth is revealed,” and she hoped they would be executed but the maximum penalty for such cases is 15 years and the judge issued his verdict of 10 years.
The Khaled Saeed retrial included seven sessions and today’s hearing condemning the officers “is a symbol that the revolution we have made was not baseless,” said Mohamed Ali, political activist. “It was rather built on revolting against a deeply-rooted belief that police is above people and beyond any questioning, police for long time was torturing and humiliating people that is why we raised the banner of Human Dignity as a revolutionary demand,” Ali added.
