Court pardons all defendants in Suez martyr case

Fourteen defendants accused of killing protesters in Suez during the January 25 revolution were found innocent of all charges and ordered released from detention, reported the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY) on Thursday.

The defendants include the former Suez Security Directorate chief, several police captains and officers, and Suez-based businessman Ahmed Farag and his three sons, AMAY reported.

Abdel Raouf Abu Zeid, a representative from the public prosecution, said in his closing arguments that he was handing the rights of the martyrs over to the court, in complete trust that it would do the right thing, reported the state-run news portal Ahram Gate.

This particular case was different from any other pending court case regarding the martyrs of the revolution due to the number of victims involved, all of whom were killed while they were protesting peacefully, Abu Zeid argued.

The defendants in the case were accused of responsibility for the deaths of 17 protesters and the injury of 300 others during the 18 days of 2011. The trial was postponed several times over the past two years, with the most recent hearing taking place on May 2. Dozens of family members of the victims flocked to the Suez Criminal Court — held in Cairo’s Fifth Settlement district — to attend the session.