By AFP
CAIRO: Egypt’s public prosecutor has set up a panel of judges to look into claims of police torture before and after a popular revolt that ousted president Hosni Mubarak, a judicial official told AFP on Tuesday.
The three-judge panel, headed by Mostafa Sharafeddine, will “examine cases of torture in police stations whether they happened before or after the January 25 Revolution,” the official said.
“Those found guilty will be referred to a criminal court,” he said.
Routine police abuse and torture were prevalent during the Mubarak era and were a driving force behind the massive popular protests that ousted him on Feb. 11.
The most high-profile case to have dominated headlines and sparked demonstrations was of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old man beaten to death by two undercover police officers on an Alexandria street last year.
A Facebook page dedicated to him, “We are all Khaled Said,” was one of several that helped launch the call for anti-regime protests on Jan. 25.
Last month, Minister of Interior Mansour El-Essawy ordered an investigation into the case of a man who died following police questioning, in what some media called the first post-revolt incident of police torture.
