Six Egyptian policemen charged with torturing prisoner to death

CAIRO — Six Egyptian policemen were charged on Sunday with torturing a prisoner to death, state media reported, a rare case against law enforcement over alleged abuses in custody.

Prosecutors alleged the officers tortured a young man accused of robbery to death in June at a police station in Cairo after conducting an autopsy on the body, state-run newspaper Al Ahram said.

Rights groups have regularly denounced the security forces under President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi over the alleged widespread use of torture.

The authorities insist that there are no state-sanctioned abuses carried out by law enforcement and that any cases are down to individual officers.

In May, an appeal court acquitted two police officers who had been jailed for allegedly beating to death a detained lawyer in 2015.

The two officers had been sentenced to five years prison for torturing and beating Karim Hamdi to death in a Cairo police station after a pro-Islamist protest.