Nine Egyptian policemen have been arrested in an
investigation into the death of a man in police custody in
Luxor, officials said Sunday, after authorities vowed a
crackdown on police abuses.
The nine, including three lieutenants and a captain, were
arrested on Friday and Saturday as part of a probe into the
death of the 47-year-old man at a police station last month.
Their arrests came amid at least two investigations into
deaths in police custody and after President Abdel Fattah al-
Sisi last week warned that police officers found guilty of
“committing mistakes” would be punished.
The official MENA news agency said the arrests were
ordered after a forensic report revealed that the man had
died after being beaten on his neck and back.
The nine policemen are suspected of either participating in
the beating, approving it or not preventing it, a judicial
official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The man had been arrested on November 26 from a cafe in
southern city Luxor and taken to the police station where he
died an hour later.
Another police officer has been detained in a separate case
of a veterinarian who died in police custody last month in
the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya.
Rights groups regularly accuse Egyptian police and members
of the intelligence services of abusing and torturing
detainees.
Police abuses under former president Hosni Mubarak were
a key factor for the 2011 revolt that led to his ouster.
One of the triggers of the anti-Mubarak revolt was the killing
of a young man, Khaled Saeed, who was arrested in the
Mediterranean city of Alexandria and tortured to death by
policemen.
Saeed’s death galvanised protests against Mubarak after
pictures emerged online of the 28-year-old’s mangled face.
Egypt was under military rule for 17 months after Mubarak’s
overthrow and the police kept a low profile.
Islamist Mohamed Morsi then became Egypt’s first freely
elected leader but was overthrown by then-army chief Sisi in
2013, who has launched a brutal crackdown on his
supporters.

http://ww.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/egypt-arrests-nine-policemen-over-death-in-custody/

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