Lawyer’s death in police custody triggers outrage

27-year-old charged with belonging to Muslim Brotherhood died Tuesday in Cairo

Dozens of Egyptian lawyers yesterday protested in Cairo over the mysterious death of a colleague while in police custody two days ago.

The protesters chanted slogans against the government and police as they marched in a major court building in Cairo.

Kareem Hamdi, a 27-yearold lawyer, had been arrested earlier in the week. He was charged with belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood and torching a police vehicle. He reportedly died on Tuesday in a police station in the northern Cairo district of Matariya, a stronghold of Islamists.

Lawyers have claimed that Hamdi’s body carried marks of torture.

The Lawyers Association has held police responsible for his death and urged authorities to put suspected wrongdoers on an urgent trial.

The association’s chairman Sameh Ashur said the union would hold a crisis meeting on the incident.

“There should be a deterrence to anyone thinking of harming any lawyer,” Ashur said in a statement.

A spokesman for police, meanwhile, denied the torture claims and called for people to wait for the findings of the autopsy.

Chief Prosecutor Hesham Barakat yesterday ordered an investigation into the incident in response to a legal complaint filed by Hamdi’s colleagues, accusing police of torturing him to death.

Egyptian authorities have pursued a relentless crackdown on Islamists since 2013 when the military toppled president Mohammad Mursi of the Brotherhood.

Rights groups have in recent months cited an increase in alleged abuses by police.