An Egyptian high court acquitted two police officers on Sunday who were accused of torturing and killing a prominent lawyer, Karim Hamdi, while he was in custody.
Hamdi was arrested on suspicion of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group recognized as a terrorist organization in Egypt. In recent years, the Egyptian government has convicted and sentenced Muslim Brotherhood figures in a crackdown of its members that once held political prominence in the country.
Egypt has also been criticized by human rights groups for its treatment of prisoners in recent years pointing to possible political motivations for the imprisonment and subsequent abuse of convicted individuals.
(Published by Jurist, May 15, 2018)