Two Egyptian policemen have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for torturing and beating a citizen to death at a police station in the Tanta city of Gbarbiya province.
The Tanta Criminal Court held that it had on a previous occasion sentenced the two policemen – a captain and a non-commissioned officer – to one year in prison for torturing and injuring another citizen at the same police station.
The two policemen were sentenced in absentia.
Reports say the two victims of the policemen’s brutality were in for theft. While one was tortured to death during interrogation, the other sustained injuries that landed him in hospital.
A source in the security sector however said the verdict would be appealed.
The North African nation of Egypt had been hit with cases of police brutality which human rights groups have condemned in recent times.
The Interior Ministry said it would punish any police officer caught in acts that constitute brutality, while saying that the torture cases were mere “individual cases” and not a measure of general police behaviour.