By Ingy Hassieb and Sarah Carr
CAIRO: The trial of two policemen on charges relating to the death of Khaled Saeid will begin on July 27, 2010, a lawyer representing Saied’s family says.
Lawyer Hatem Kassem, who is also Saeid’s brother, says that Awad Ismail Suleiman and Mahmoud Sabry Mahmoud will be tried in the Alexandria Criminal Court.
The public prosecution office last week charged Suleiman and Mahmoud with misuse of force by a public official, illegal arrest and torture of an individual arrested illegally.
The two men apprehended 28-year-old Saeid in an internet café on June 6, and, according to eyewitnesses, violently physically assaulted him.
Images of Saeid’s badly disfigured face taken after his death caused public outrage, which was inflamed when two autopsy reports concluded that Saeid died after choking on a plastic wrap containing Marijuana.
According to Kassem, lawyers are currently in the process of selecting independent forensic reports that they will submit to the court.
As lawyers this week reported that witnesses in the case are being intimidated by the police, Gamal Mubarak, son of the president and head of the ruling National Democratic Party’s policies committee, commented on the Saeid case, saying that “justice will take its course”.
Public statements by a senior member of the regime on Egypt’s frequent incidents of police brutality are rare.
