By Ingy Hassieb and Sarah Carr
CAIRO: Two policemen were remanded for four days in custody on Wednesday in connection with the death of Khaled Saeid.
According to the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Violence, 33-year-old Awad Ismail Suleiman and 26-year-old Mahmoud Sabry Mahmoud are being held on suspicion of having committed offences under three articles in the Egyptian Penal Code, 129, 280, and 282.
Article 129 criminalizes the use of force by a government official and is punishable by a one-year prison sentence or fine of no more than LE 200. Article 280 provides that illegal arrest is punishable by an undefined jail sentence and a fine of no more than LE 200.
Article 282, states that individuals who torture an individual they have arrested without legal grounds are liable to a sentence in high-security prison.
Both men deny the charges.
Eyewitnesses say that the two men entered an internet café in Alexandria on June 6, 2010 and physically assaulted Saeid violently.
Two autopsy reports have upheld the interior ministry’s allegations that Saeid died after choking on a plastic wrap of marijuana he swallowed when approached by the police officers.
”We welcome the policemen being detained in custody, but we are going to be persistent with the charges the victim’s family want to bring against the defendants, which are premeditated and intentional murder, until all the investigations are complete”, said Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, lawyer with the Nadeem center.
“We also demand that the officers are temporarily removed from service until the investigations are complete because they are exerting influence and pressure on eyewitnesses,” he said.
Abdel-Aziz said that as investigations continue, they “demand that witnesses are protected, and that the prosecutor’s classification of the case is changed” based on other forensic reports that the Nadeem center will be presenting in court, which prove the offenders’ guilt.
