CAIRO: The first death sentence for murdering demonstrators during the Egyptian Revolution was handed to a low-ranking police officer yesterday. Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Moneim was found guilty of killing at least 20 protesters and wounding 15 others by firing his rifle randomly outside a Cairo police station on January 28 – one of the bloodiest days of the uprising. Abdel Moneim was tried in absentia and sentenced to death by the Cairo Criminal Court. The sentence was received with cheers and applause by family members of those killed during Egypt's 18-day uprising, some of who called out, Allahu akbar! God is great. Under Egyptian law, the death sentence must be approved by Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa, the highest-ranking Islamic cleric in Egypt. Gomaa is tasked with interpreting Islamic law. Lawyers told the Associated Press that the court likely felt free to pass the maximum sentence because Abdel Moneim was tried in absentia. Human rights lawyer Taher Abou el-Naser said the defendant will receive a new trial once he is arrested. Trials in absentia are not uncommon in Egypt. The sentence is likely to be received with mixed feelings. While some are glad to see a death sentence handed down, feeling that justice is finally being brought on those who killed their loved ones during Egypt's revolution, other reactions are more reserved. Why has this one man, a low-ranking officer who “randomly” fired his rifle into a crowd of demonstrators outside a police station, been sentenced to death? What of the upper-ranking officers who likely ordered the shooting? And what of Habib al-Adly, Egypt's hated former Minister of Interior whom many Egyptians blame as the mastermind of the crackdowns on demonstrators? Al-Adly has been found guilty of corruption but is still being tried on charges of murdering demonstrators. Al-Adly was one of the first members of the old regime to fall, ousted in a cabinet reshuffle during the uprising that was meant to appease demonstrators. According to an official toll, over 800 people died during the eighteen days of demonstrations that toppled Egypt's thirty-year president, Hosni Mubarak.
