CAIRO: Giza policeman Adel Al-Shahed was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with hard labor Tuesday for the murder of Tamer Mashour following an altercation near the Shooting Club in Mohandiseen last November. Ihab Mashour, Tamer's brother, told Daily News Egypt, "The judiciary has decided. Though nothing can bring my brother back, I had wanted qassass [death sentence], but the judge decided this and we must respect his decision. The presiding judge had ascertained in his verdict that it was a deliberate and willful killing, but not premeditated. The death sentence is only issued in the case of premeditated murder. In murder cases, the verdict can only be appealed at the Supreme Court, which reexamines the reasons for the ruling. The prosecution had called for the maximum sentence for Al-Shahed, stating that it was a crime committed by a policeman who should have been upholding the law, and alleged that he also removed the bullet from the body of the deceased to cover his crime. Al-Shahed's defense team argued in its closing statement that Al-Shahed shot Mashour in self-defense and had been assaulted with a baseball bat prior to the shooting. On Nov. 21 an altercation between Ihab Mashour and Al-Shahed's brother Ahmed near the Shooting Club in Mohandiseen eventually led to the death of Tamer Mashour and the injury of Bassem Al-Shuweihy, who both were shot by Al-Shahed. Al-Shahed had admitted to the presiding judge that he had killed Mashour but claimed that it was in self defense. He was off-duty at the time. Al-Shahed was also sentenced to one month imprisonment in early April by the Dokki Misdemeanors Court for the initial altercation that led to Mashour's death. The court sentenced Al-Shahed to one month and a LE 10,000 fine in lieu of compensation. Additionally Ihab Mashour and his friend Mohammed Fawzy were given a suspended sentence of one month and LE 10,000 fines for their part in the altercation.
