Policeman killing Christian father, son handed preliminary death sentence

CAIRO – 3 February 2019: Minya Criminal Court referred on Saturday the papers of a police officer convicted of killing a Christian worker and his son in front of a church in Upper Egypt's Minya to decide whether he should be sentenced to death.

The court decided to issue its verdict on April 2, according to judicial sources.

The prosecution earlier charged Rabie Khalifa, 43, with premeditated murder, as he appeared in a video shooting dead Imad Kamal Sadiq, 49, and his son, David, 21.

The video that was circulated on social media did not show any physical fight between the killer and the victims before the murder.

Attorney General Nabil Sadek referred the policeman to urgent trial on December 18, 2018.

Many Egyptian policeman have been convicted of crimes over the last few years.

In November 2018, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced a police officer and a policeman to three years, and six months in prison, respectively, for murder by mistake in the lawsuit publicly known as “Afroto Case."

In January 2018, both convicts beat a detainee called Mohamed Abdel Hakim and nicknamed Afroto to death in the Mokatam Police Department.

The committee formed by the Forensic Medicine Department confirmed in July that Mohamed Abdel Hakim (aka Afroto) died after being beaten, refuting former claims of his death as a result of a drug overdose.

By measuring the concentration of drugs in Afroto’s body, the forensic report found that the victim did not abuse a deadly overdose of drugs.

The report also found that the severe injuries caused by assaulting the victim were the certain cause of his death.