Hazzem al-Kholy, a police officer accused of killing protestors in the Zawya al-Hamra district, Cairo, is alleged to have attacked and insulted the head of security at Cairo Criminal Court during the first hearing of his trial. The officer from the Zawya al-Hamara Investigation Department assaulted security chief Colonel Hesham Zayan after he allowed journalists into the court room to take photos, according to eyewitnesses. The judge at Cairo Criminal Court adjourned the case to 2 January. The prosecution has accused Kholy, Captain Alaa Abd el-Razik, from the same police department, and a fugitive police constable named Mohammed el-Sonni of killing two demonstrators on 25 January. The two officers appeared in court, while Sonni is being tried for the fifth time in absentia. Sonni has previously been given the death sentence and life imprisonment by Cairo Criminal Court in cases of killing demonstrators during the revolution. According to an interview with Al-Ahram newspaper earlier in the year, Sonni claims he is being used as a scapegoat by the police and the Interior Ministry. His lawyer says that he was not issued with live bullets on the day, and that the killing was mainly carried out by snipers on the roof of the police station. Translated from the Arabic Edition
