By Sarah Carr
CAIRO: Protestors in Cairo demonstrated against police violence on Sunday, a week before the trial of two policemen accused of brutality begins.
About 50 people gathered outside the public prosecutor’s office, where they were encircled by riot police.
Holding up images of Khaled Saeid — the 28-year-old whose death on June 6 while he was being apprehended by two policemen caused public outrage — protestors chanted against the Ministry of Interior and called for justice for Saeid.
Protestor Mostafa Shawky told Daily News Egypt that Saeid has become “symbolic” of torture in Egypt.
Shawky said that Saeid’s case occurred at the same time as the emergence of “a climate encouraging young people to take part in political life.” He also attributed the attention which the case has received to the photograph of Saeid’s badly disfigured face, taken after his death and widely distributed online.
“Khaled Saeid’s case isn’t just about Khaled Saeid. It represents torture in Egypt,” Shawky said.
“We’re here today to say that we’re against the systematic policy of torture which the interior ministry follows, and against the emergency law which has propped up the ruling regime for the past 30 years,” Shawky added.
The trial of policemen Awad Ismail Suleiman and Mahmoud Sabry Mahmoud, accused of illegal arrest and misuse of force against an individual arrested illegally will begin at the Alexandria Criminal Court on July 27.
