AN Egyptian court has condemned a policeman to death for killing 20 protesters during this year’s revolt.
It’s the first such sentencing of a security forces member for the murder of demonstrators during the January-February uprising.
Mohammed al-Sonni was found guilty of having shot dead “at random” 20 demonstrators and wounding 15 others to fend off a raid on a police station on January 28, one of the bloodiest days of the revolt.
The court asked the mufti of the republic, Ali Gomaa, who is tasked with interpreting Islamic law for Egypt’s government, to confirm the sentence as required by Egyptian law.
According to an official toll, 846 people were killed and thousands injured in the uprising which toppled president Hosni Mubarak on February 11.
Meanwhile, A special appeals court in Bahrain has upheld death sentences for two people convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations in March.
The case is part of a series of closed-door trials in the Gulf island country that have been criticised by rights groups and others opposed to the wide-ranging emergency laws used to quell demonstrations against Bahrain’s monarchy.
Two other defendants who had been sentenced to death in the case had their sentences reduced to life in prison, according to the Gulf kingdom’s official state news agency.
Three other defendants in the same case previously received life sentences.
The appeals, like the trial before it, were heard in a special security court presided over by military and civilian judges. It was set up under emergency laws implemented in March during a government crackdown on the Shi’ite-led protests.
The security court is separately trying 21 opposition leaders and political activists, most of them Shi’ites, accused of plotting against the state. It last week sentenced a prominent Shi’ite cleric and eight others to 20 years in prison for the alleged kidnapping of a police officer.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other rights advocates have expressed concern about the trials in the strategic island nation, which is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.
At least 30 people have died since anti-government protests began in mid February by the majority Shi’ites, who are seeking greater rights and political freedoms from Bahrain’s Sunni rulers.