Policeman sentenced to life for killing Darb al-Ahmar driver in quick trial

Cairo Criminal Court handed a low-ranking policeman a life sentence on Saturday for killing a citizen in the Darb al-Ahmar district in February.

The quick sentence raised questions regarding the state’s commitment to ensuring justice.

On February 19, low-ranking policeman Mostafa Abdel Hassieb shot 24-year-old driver Mohamed Saeed (known locally as Darbaka) in the head during an altercation over his fare. Thousands of local residents protested for two days in front of Cairo Security Directorate, chanting against the police and the government.

In remarks to the privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper on Saturday, presiding judge Sobhy al-Laban said the court gave the defendant the maximum penalty because it was convinced he was guilty. The investigation was completed in just 29 days, with one session a week, including the testimonies of defense witnesses and forensic reports. Hassieb can still appeal the verdict.

“Slow justice is expensive and is the worst form of injustice,” Laban commented.

Such remarks have been made by rights lawyers and activists urging speedier justice for those killed by police during the January 25, 2011 revolution, as several police defendants have been acquitted following lengthy trials over the last few years.

“We have never seen such a speedy trial in similar cases,” rights lawyer Mokhtar Mounir said.

Mounir cited the case of a Salafi young man, Sayed Bilal, who was tortured to death in early 2011, allegedly at the hands of state security police officers, who tried to force him to confess to involvement in the bombing of Al-Qeddesine Church in Alexandria. Four police officers were tried for four years in the case, which ended in their acquittal. Investigations began in September 2011, almost eight months after Bilal’s death. In April 2012, the four officers were sentenced to 15 years in prison. In June 2015, they were retried upon appeal and acquitted.

Darbaka’s killer was sentenced quickly to appease public opinion, Mounir says. “We are not in a state of law, we are in a state in which political will affects the course of justice. In this case, a speedy trial is not the result of justice, but is at the will of the ruling regime,” he says.

The trial of the officer who killed activist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh is similar, Mounir adds. Officer Yassin Hatem, who worked for Central Security Forces, was convicted of killing Sabbagh on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the January 25 revolution. Her death also led to a wave of anger against police brutality and was widely condemned both nationally and internationally.

Investigations in Sabbagh's case took less than four months, which Mounir says is a short period compared to similar cases. The first trial session was on May 2015, and Hatem was sentenced to 15 years in prison after just a month. The verdict, however, was appealed and Hatem was granted a retrial in February 2016.