Beni Suef Criminal Court sentenced to death on Monday a defendant accused of the premeditative killing of Hisham Taema, a Beni Suef police officer, according to state-run media outlet EGY news.
The court also handed another eleven defendants fifteen-year prison sentences, as well as a ten-year prison sentence to another, for being involved in the crime. The defendants had been accused of attempting to murder two police officers, possessing weapons, and using force against law-enforcement officers.
This case dates back to 2013 when head of the Security Directorate Ahmed Shaarawy received a report from the head of the Criminal Investigation that a shooting occurred between youth groups in a suburb because of issues between them. When security forces showed up at the scene of the shooting, Taema was shot dead by one of the defendants.
A number of security representatives were killed in Beni Suef during the past few years as this governorate in particular had been suffering from security issues.
In 2013, there have been a lot of clashes between citizens and security forces, in which people from both sides were killed. The year marked an unstable security situation due to a number of demonstrations and protests arranged by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters to express their rejection of the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.