Court acquits policeman accused of killing protesters during 2011 uprising

On Wednesday, the North Cairo Criminal Court acquitted policeman Mohamed Abdel Moneim Ibrahim of shooting dead 18 protesters, and injuring three others outside the Zawiya al-Hamra Police Station on January 28, 2011.

The policeman, nicknamed Mohamed 'al-Sunni’ had been tried in absentia in late 2011, initially receiving the death penalty (twice) along with lengthy prison sentences, on the charges of willfully killing and injuring the protesters. Investigations had initially pointed to the policeman’s use of live ammunition against them.

Having fled his first court hearings, this policeman later turned himself in. Both ‘al-Sunni’ and his lawyer claim that he was scapegoated for the deaths of protesters while the Interior Ministry’s top generals and senior police officers were rarely subjected to trials – and typically acquitted in those cases where they did stand before criminal courts.

The policeman and his lawyer pleaded in their appeal that ‘al-Sunni’ was acting in self-defense, merely protecting his station, and did not intend on shooting dead any protesters, but rather aimed to disperse them by firing into the air.

Security forces claim that protesters armed with petrol bombs attacked the Zawiya al-Hamra Police Station setting several of its floors on fire.

‘Al-Sunni’ is one of the only members of Egypt’s police forces to stand trial for armed assaults on protesters – of whom around 850 were killed, and over 6,000 others injured, during the anti-Mubarak uprising of 2011.

While Mubarak’s Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly, has been charged for criminal offenses, on June 2, 2012 judges acquitted al-Adly’s top six police deputies of involvement in the killing of protesters.

Meanwhile, thousands of civilian protesters, from a wide political spectrum, have been sentenced to prison by criminal courts and military tribunals for alleged crimes committed during and since the 2011 uprising.

The repeated acquittals of security forces on charges of killing protesters, coupled with the frequent convictions against civilians, has raised questions regarding the independence or politicization of Egypt’s judiciary and prosecutors.