Sunday 14 February 2016

Egypt protester’s death: Cop’s conviction overturned

CAIRO: Egypt’s highest appeals court on Sunday overturned the conviction of a police officer sentenced to 15 years in prison for the killing of a female protester in a January 2015 shooting captured on video and photos.
Cassation Court Judge Taha Qassim also ruled that a new trial be held for the officer, Yassin Hatem Salah Eddin, who was convicted and sentenced in June last year for premeditated manslaughter. Salah Eddin was 25 at the time of the killing.
The ruling, reported by Egypt’s official MENA news agency, appeared to be in line with the acquittals or suspended sentences received by dozens of police officers who stood trial for the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The Jan. 24, 2015 killing of Shaimaa El-Sabbagh, a 32-year-old activist and mother of a small boy, touched many Egyptians after images circulated of her with blood running down her face while leaning on another protester.
She and some 40 fellow members of a leftist party had gathered in downtown Cairo that day with the intention of laying wreaths at nearby Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising, in remembrance of protesters killed during the popular revolt.

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