Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has referred the two police officers implicated in the alleged killing of Khaled Saeed to the Alexandria Criminal Court. Both men are charged with the unlawful arrest and torture of a citizen and the use of violence against him. In a statement issued yesterday, Mahmoud said that the investigations have considered the testimonies of witnesses, the two forensic medicine reports, and the opinion of the chief medical examiner. The investigations, he added, have ruled out the possibility of voluntary manslaughter, or the deadly beating of the victim. However, the statement disputed the legality of Saeed's arrest which was justified by the fact that he was given a previous sentence in absentia. Since the issuing of a sentence in absentia requires that the convict in question be notified of the ruling, the statement went on, the arrest of Saeed amounts to a crime. Meanwhile, Alaa Gad, lawyer for the two police officers, has said that the testimonies of witnesses contradict the results of the three-way committee formed by the Attorney General. He added that the victim's teeth were intact and that his body had no broken bones. Mahmoud Afifi, the lawyer for Khaled's family, said he has asked the Prosecution to take into consideration the first paragraph of Article 126 of the Penal Code, which stipulates that convicts in cases like this should receive three to ten years in prison, as well as the second paragraph in the same article which states that a convict should receive the penalty for voluntary manslaughter if torture leads to death. Security sources have told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the Ministry of Interior will launch its own internal investigations into the incident. The two officers in question are imprisoned pending further investigations. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
