Egypt Policeman Faces Trial in Death of Detained Islamist

A policeman is to face trial over the death of a wounded Islamist in hospital, Egypt's judiciary said Wednesday, in the second such case this week against the police.

The policeman, detained since February, is to be tried in criminal court on charges of "voluntary homicide", a judicial official said, without giving a date.

The interior ministry said at the time that a row had broken out in a Cairo hospital between a Muslim Brotherhood member and the policeman on guard duty, who opened fire at the Islamist.

The suspect had been wounded during his arrest as he allegedly planted a bomb in a northern district of the capital.

On Tuesday, the state prosecutor referred another police officer to trial in criminal court for allegedly shooting dead a leftist female protester during a peaceful rally in central Cairo.

Shaima al-Sabbagh, whose killing was partly captured on film, was shot as police dispersed a march by leftists.

It will be the first trial of a policeman for an alleged killing during a protest since the military's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, a human rights researcher told AFP.

Police have been accused of killing hundreds of mostly Islamist protesters since Morsi's ouster, including about 700 in a single day in August 2013 when policemen dispersed Cairo protest camps.

About 10 policemen also died in those clashes.

A court had sentenced an officer to 10 years in prison for the deaths of 37 detainees arrested at a pro-Morsi protest who suffocated from tear gas inside a police truck, but an appeals court overturned that verdict.

Other policemen have been tried for the deaths of civilians, including an officer who shot dead a detainee in a police station.

"This is the first officer to be tried for killing a civilian in the context of a protest," said Karim Ennarah, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

The charges against that police officer exclude murder or manslaughter. He is instead charged with "battery that led to death" and "deliberately" wounding other protesters.