Sentence of police officer jailed for Abu Zaabal truck deaths annulled

Khanka Misdemeanors Court annulled a 10-year sentence given to a senior police officer for 37 deaths near Abu Zaabal prison last year, state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Lieutenant Colonel Amr Farouk from Heliopolis Police Station was sentenced to 10-years, alongside three other lower-ranking officers who received a one-year suspended sentence.

The court ordered that the case be referred back to the general prosecution for further investigation.

The defendants cheered when the verdict was announced, chanting, “Long live justice.”

On August 18, a number of prisoners suffocated while being transferred in a police transport vehicle stuffed over capacity when tear gas was fired into the vehicle. The men had already been inside the vehicle, designed to carry 24 people at one time, for several hours without food or water.

Later the men’s charred and swollen bodies were taken to Zeinhom morgue, where anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters assaulted journalists.

Official accounts of the Abu Zaabal deaths stated that the truck was attacked by an armed group around the time of the incident. The Interior Ministry claimed that the victims died of suffocation after police fired tear gas to prevent an escape attempt following the armed attack, and to free a policeman who had been taken hostage inside the truck by the detainees.

A police officer later told a pro-military paper that police wanted to move the prisoners after the start of the curfew for security reasons, but that their request was refused. When the overstuffed truck reached Abu Zaabal prison at around 8 am it was refused entry because the prison was too full.

Most media reported that the 37 men that died were supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi. An investigation by The Guardian revealed that many of those detained were simply in the area and caught up in a dragnet of arrests.