CAIRO: The District Attorney for North Minya has denied newspaper reports that charges have been brought against four police informants in the case of the death of a pregnant woman after a police raid in the town of Samalut.
Mohamed Aboul Saoud, under whose jurisdiction the case falls, told Daily News Egypt, “What the newspapers printed today [Tuesday] is untrue, no one has been charged yet in the case. Besides, the complaint [of the deceased’s husband] was submitted against the police officer, not the others who were with him.
He added that currently the authorities were waiting for the results of the forensic pathology report before deciding whether to charge the police officer or not.
Local newspapers had reported that the DA had charged the four lower ranking policemen – and not the officer – with the crime of beating which resulted in death.
Mervat Abdel-Sattar, 30, died after police raided her apartment in the early hours of the morning searching for her brother-in-law who was wanted on suspicion of theft. After her death, hundreds of people rioted, attacking policemen with rocks and sticks.
Her husband, 35-year-old mechanic Hassan Sayed Riyad complained that the police officer and the four accompanying him, who conducted the raid, were not suspended and are still on active duty.
In response to this Aboul Saoud said, “This is a police officer who has an obligation towards his job. We will not suspend him until we have reason to. We must remember that he too is a human being who has a family. We cannot suspend and charge him now only to possibly find out later that he was not responsible.
“We are dealing with the matter impartially, he added, “we must wait until we ascertain what happened and then if he is culpable we will charge him.
