The Criminal Court has sentenced three police officers to three years in prison for being accused of beating a prisoner to death inside a police station.

The case dates back to 2016 when the defendants were referred to the Criminal Court over charges of beating the victim to death inside a police station in Upper Egypt’s Sohag governorate.

The investigations found that the incident came as an attempt to coerce the victim’s confession in a murder case.

The defendants include the head of the Tahta police station’s investigations unit, the unit’s deputy, and the chief of the inspection unit of northern Sohag.

The court also sentenced a Sohag health department employee to a one year in prison, and relieved him of duty for two years for fabricating the victim’s medical report.

Since the beginning of 2016, there has been a string of cases of police abuse. However, the ministry of interior has repeatedly denied accusations of systematic and widespread abuses during that time.

In January 2018, two policemen were accused by the prosecution for torturing a young man to death while he was in custody based on suspicions of possessing narcotics. Mohamed Abdel Hakim, known as Afroto, was reported to have died in the Moqattam police station in January 2018. The prosecution said that the two policemen, held pre-emptively accountable in the case, are facing charges of assaulting Afroto, injuring him, and possibly leading to his death.