By Agencies
ALEXANDRIA: An Egyptian activist, whose death last year contributed to the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, died from asphyxiation caused by a roll forced into his mouth while he was unconscious, the state news agency MENA reported on Saturday.
A criminal court trying two policemen accused of killing the activist, Khaled Saeid, adjourned the trial until Oct. 22 to allow lawyers to examine a forensic report submitted to the court on Saturday by a team of independent medical experts from medical schools in Cairo and Alexandria.
MENA, citing the 25-page forensic report, said it stated that Saeid had died from “asphyxia, not choking”.
It said the medical experts had uncovered information indicating that “the victim had been subjected to beating and that a roll was stuffed inside his mouth by force while he was unconscious”.
Saeid’s family and witnesses accuse police of savagely beating him to death after an argument at an Alexandria Internet cafe in June of last year. As proof, they point to photos of his body showing his badly disfigured and bloodied face as well as witness accounts.
The police say the 28-year-old choked on a packet of drugs he swallowed as they approached, a finding supported by two state forensic reports. The two reports, however, cited different dimensions of the alleged packet, with one saying it was hashish and the other marijuana.
Before the attack, Saeid posted an internet video purporting to show two policemen sharing the spoils of a drug bust.
The general prosecutor charged two men, police sergeant Awad Suleiman and policeman Mahmoud Salah, with illegally arresting and physically torturing Saeid, charges that carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
Murder charges have not been filed.
Saeid’s sister, Zahra, said the forensic review marked a “new turn” in the case, adding that she now believes there is evidence that “this is not a case of torture but a crime of premeditated murder.”
On June 30, the court tasked a committee of forensic experts from three Egyptian universities to review the earlier reports on the cause of Saeid’s death prepared by the state’s chief coroner.
The court tasked a committee of forensic experts from three Egyptian universities to review the earlier reports on the cause of Saeid’s death prepared by the state’s chief coroner.
A technical committee of professors from Alexandria University’s Faculty of Fine Arts was also formed after the June 30 hearing to inspect the graphic posthumous photograph of Saeid’s badly disfigured face to determine whether it was taken before or after the autopsy.
The judge, citing the need to “ensure a proper conduct of justice”, ordered a news blackout on the hearings from the next court session until a verdict was reached, witnesses said.
US-based Human Rights Watch has said there was evidence that two plainclothes policemen killed Saeid and the state had failed to explain signs of beatings on his body.
Saeid’s death became a rallying cry for activists behind the Jan. 25 uprising that culminated in Mubarak’s removal on Feb. 11. Photographs of Saeid’s face were posted on the internet to draw attention to rampant police brutality under the Mubarak regime.
Activists used a Facebook page set up in his memory, which organized several vigils and silent demonstrations against his death in 2010, to call for the protests that forced Mubarak from power. –Additional reporting by Daily News Egypt.
