Retrial for Cops Jailed in Death Linked to Egypt Uprising

A court in Egypt on Thursday ordered a retrial of two policemen jailed for beating a young man to death in a shocking case that helped spark the country's revolution in early 2011.

The Court of Cassation overturned seven-year prison sentences handed to officers Mahmoud Salah Mahmoud and Awad Esmail Suleiman in October 2011 for the beating death of 28-year-old Khaled Saeed in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in June the previous year.

The court did not immediately release its reasoning for the new trial. In past cases, courts have overturned verdicts because of faulty trial proceedings.

Saeed's death enraged many Egyptians. Disturbing photographs of his badly mutilated corpse published on the Internet sparked vigils and protests in Alexandria and Cairo.

A Facebook page dedicated to Said fueled protests that targeted police stations nationwide, becoming part of the popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

In a separate case, a court in Alexandria on Thursday acquitted a police officer accused of torturing to death an Islamist suspected in a deadly church bombing in January 2011.