CAIRO: The Sixth of October Appeals Court upheld a previous verdict on Wednesday given to three police officers for torturing Shady Maged Saad Zaghloul. The three officers have each been sentenced to one month in prison. The officers were not present for the judicial proceedings when the appeals judge announced his verdict.
"Today I feel that I finally regained my rights after all this time and all the troubles I went through," Zaghloul told Daily News Egypt.
"By this verdict, the Egyptian judiciary reinforced its integrity by stating the fact that there is no difference between civilian citizens and policemen," said Gerges Safwat, Zaghloul’s lawyer.
Even though the appeal court’s ruling is enforceable, the officers’ lawyers can still contest the verdict before a higher cassation court.
Ibrahim El-Saeid, Zaghloul’s former lawyer who is now representing one of the officers in the case, declined to comment on the judge’s verdict.
"All I can say is that I will contest the ruling before the cassation court," El-Saeid told Daily News Egypt.
In May 2010, the three officers were found guilty and were sentenced to one month in prison. In order to suspend the verdict pending appeal, they were each also ordered to pay a LE 200 fine.
The case dates back to October 2007 when Zaghloul was arrested in Sixth of October City by a police officer who requested to check his driver’s license and search him.
Zaghloul claimed that the officer had asked him to be a police informant when he discovered that Zaghloul had been living in Sixth of October City for a long time. When he refused the policeman’s request, Zaghloul was allegedly beaten in the street and forcibly detained in the officer’s police truck.
"They accused me at the police station of possession of hashish for dealing, which is not true," Zaghloul previously told Daily News Egypt.
The prosecutor who interrogated Zaghloul had noticed signs on Zaghloul’s face that he may have been beaten. When Zaghloul began to complain that he was attacked by the policemen, the prosecutor referred Zaghloul to a forensic specialist who confirmed indications of the incident. Zaghloul was still kept in police custody for 15 days, however, as investigations were made regarding the drug-dealing charge.
Zaghloul alleged that he was tortured by two other policemen for 10 days to force him to withdraw his complaint against the police officer who arrested him.
Zaghloul was released at the end of October and, a few months later, the court acquitted Zaghloul of the drug-related charges brought against him.
In March 2008, Zaghloul filed a complaint at the prosecution office claiming that he has been receiving threats over his mobile phone urging him to withdraw his earlier accusations against the three policemen.
Zaghloul eventually withdrew his complaint after he had been subjected to threats by policemen.
However, he later filed another complaint at the Public Prosecutor General’s office claiming that he was forced to give up on the case. By December 2009, legal action was taken against the three officers.
