Egypt’s highest appeals court has 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 in photos.
Cassation court judge Taha Qassim also ruled on Sunday that a new trial be held for the officer, Yassin Hatem Salaheddin, who was convicted and sentenced last June for premeditated manslaughter. Salaheddin 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 Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The killing of Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, a 32-year-old activist and mother of a young boy, touched many Egyptians after images circulated of her with blood running down her face while leaning on another protester.
She and about 40 fellow members of a leftist party had gathered in downtown Cairo with the intention of laying wreaths at Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising, in remembrance of protesters killed during the popular revolt.
Witnesses and members of her party later said police ignored pleas to allow an ambulance through their lines to take al-Sabbagh away after she was shot with birdshot. Officers also prevented anyone from helping her, they said.
Authorities had initially denied that police had anything to do with the killing, and a senior police officer said at the time that forensic experts had determined that the highly militarised force did not use the type of ammunition that caused her death, suggesting that an unknown party was behind the killing. Sabbagh’s death came amid widespread allegations of police brutality by local and international rights groups, which maintain that the force has revived Mubarak-era practices such as arbitrary arrests, torture and disappearances.
The policeman’s defence lawyer, Farid El-Deeb, argued that the protest was held in violation of a 2013 law, which effectively bans street demonstrations, and that the circumstances surrounding it led to confusion among police officers assigned to enforce the law, according to Mena.
The day after the shooting, another 23 people were killed, including three police officers, in violent protests as Egyptians marked the fourth anniversary of the start of the anti-Mubarak uprising.
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