West Cairo prosecution on Monday ordered the detention of two police officers for four days pending investigation following the death in custody of Ahmed Zalat. Zalat was being held in Hadayeq Al-Qobba police station. The two police officers have been accused of torturing a detainee to death and forging official records. The prosecution also ordered the arrest of four low-ranking policemen from the same police station pending investigations. Zalat, 39, was arrested early Friday after being accused of stealing documents from a law firm. On the same day Zalat was taken to Al-Zaitoun Hospital where doctors say he was dead on arrival. The prosecution has ordered an autopsy, seized surveillance tapes from the police station and taken statements from other prisoners. Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfik ordered the case to be referred to the prosecution-general and has also instructed the ministry's Monitoring and Inspection Department to conduct its own administrative investigation. Zalat's family and friends gathered late on Friday in front of Al-Hadayeq police station and around the morgue to protest his death in custody. Cairo Security Directorate responded by deploying security forces around the police station to prevent the demonstrators from breaking in. Four of Zalat's relatives have been reported as being detained while demonstrating in front of the police station. One of the main causes of the 25 January 2011 uprising was public anger over the torture, corruption and oppression that had come to characterise the police. The abuses reached an apogee under Hosni Mubarak's long-time interior minister Habib Al-Adli. One of the symbols of the January uprising was Khaled Said, a young man from Alexandria, who was beaten to death by two policemen in broad daylight in the street.
