Suez Muslim Brotherhood mourns execution of man charged with 2015 murder of police official

The family of a man sentenced to death by a military court received his body from the Zagazig Morgue on Monday, following his execution earlier that morning, according to a source close to the family.

Abdel Rahman al-Gabarty was issued a death sentence in Case 119/2016, charged with the March 2015 killing of a high-ranking police official in the Suez area of east Cairo.

The privately owned Window of Egypt website, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, published a statement issued by the Suez chapter of the outlawed group, in which Gabarty is mourned as “a martyr in the prisons of the coup.”

According to the source, who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, the case dates back to March 2015, when Gabarty was arrested and forcibly disappeared for three weeks following his suspected involvement in the killing of the head of the investigations unit at the Ganayen Police Department Mohamed Suweilam.

Four armed men ambushed a police checkpoint near the residence of former Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim in Suez in March 2015, according to the privately owned Youm7. Shots were subsequently exchanged between police forces and the armed men, leading to Suweilam's death, as well as the death of one of the assailants.

In October 2017, Gabarty's case documents were referred to Egypt's Grand Mufti, who approved the military court's death sentence verdict in December 2017, the source stated. Gabarty's lawyers filed an appeal within the 60-day window stipulated by law, but their request appears to have been rejected, given the verdict's implementation on Monday morning.

Activists on social media circulated news on Tuesday that Gabarty’s death was the result of his torture in police custody. The source confirmed to Mada Masr, however, that the family was notified of the implementation of Gabarty's death sentence by police officials on Monday morning, and stated that no traces of torture were found on Gabarty’s body at the morgue.

According to the source, Gabarty was shot while attempting to escape from security forces, who were at his house to arrest him. However, another account of Gabarty’s arrest and injury, published by the privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper in March 2015, quoted the record of the prosecution's interrogation with Gabarty, which stated that he was shot during a police chase after he and another person fired at the residence of the former interior minister.

Gabarty was tried in several cases following his arrest and was charged with illegal protest and attempting to overthrow the government, but was later acquitted, according to the source.