Police officer convicted of raping mentally ill woman sentenced to life

Giza Criminal Court sentenced a low-ranking police officer, Khaled Abdel Rahman Mohamed, to life imprisonment after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a female detainee last August in the Imbaba Police Station.

According to the investigation, the officer took advantage the defendant's “psychological condition,” taking her out of the detention room and sexually assaulting her in a secluded part of the police station away from surveillance cameras.

During the hearing, the prosecution listened to eye-witness testimonies of other detainees, who stated that they saw the assault take place through a small window in the door of the detention room. The sheriff stated that the detainees reported the attack after it happened and the victim was able to identify the defendant during a lineup conducted by the general prosecution.

The prosecution also viewed recorded material off the surveillance camera that shows the defendant escorting the victim outside the holding room, taking her away from the scope of the camera and disappearing for a while. Forensics stated that the victim is psychologically and mentally ill and suffers from hallucinations.

The policeman was referred to criminal court last September on charges of raping a mentally ill detainee. The 16-year-old survivor of the attack had gone to the police station to file a complaint, reporting that she had been sexually harassed by men on the street outside, and was held in detention pending the filing of the report.

That same month, a police officer injured a woman and killed her uncle in Beheira. The officer stormed into the dental clinic where the victim worked, argued with a woman who allegedly had refused to marry him and killed her uncle when he tried to mediate the situation. The officer was arrested and prosecuted.

Three policemen were also prosecuted in September for violating the corpse of a detainee who allegedly died in an exchange of gunfire with the police. The defendants were filmed inside Al-Khanka Hospital putting a cigarette in the corpse’s mouth.