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| Africa North |
| Egypt: Protests break out after police officer allegedly beat man to death |
| 2021-03-19 |
| [MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET] Egyptian social media users have lashed out at security services after a man was reportedly beaten to death by a police officer on Wednesday. According to eyewitnesses and family testimonies shared on social media, a police officer beat Mohammed Youssef inside a poultry shop the latter owned in the village of Monshaat el-Karaam in the Nile Delta province of Qalyubia. The story was corroborated by the testimony of journalist Ahmed Abdeen, who says he comes from the same village and used to be the victim’s neighbour. "A police officer from the Shebeen Qanatir municipality accompanied by two junior officers stormed the shop of Mohammed Youssef, a young man from my village Monshaat el-Karaam, beat him with their rifles, killed him, then left," he wrote on Facebook. "The man is now dead, his corpse is still in the shop and people are afraid to remove it, while the police services refuse to respond." Protests erupted soon after the incident, with locals chanting "We want his rights." Egypt’s interior ministry has yet to comment on the incident, but state news agency MENA cited a security source on Thursday as denying that Youssef was killed by an officer. Egyptian media under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi are known to be tightly controlled by the intelligence services. "I have contacted dozens of journalists in Egypt to publish a story on the crime of murder of the young man who was my classmate in school. They promised me to publish something, but then there seem to be orders to cover up the story," Abdeen said. Videos by locals, however, have been widely shared on social media, including one in which MP Mahmoud Badr is seen being forced out of the village by protesters over the authorities' silence. |
| Posted by:Fred |