Egypt postpones police trial in protester deaths case
10/29/2013 3:22:05 PM
A Cairo court on Tuesday postponed the trial of four police officers accused of killing 37 Islamist prisoners in August, judicial sources said.
The next hearing will be held on November 12, they said.
The trial is the first of police officers accused of killings in a massive crackdown on Islamists which followed the army's July 3 ouster of democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi.
The officers are charged with manslaughter. They include the deputy head of a Cairo police station from where the prisoners were being transferred.
The prisoners, arrested during clashes with security forces, died from suffocation when police fired tear gas canisters into the truck transporting them to a prison on Cairo's outskirts, the interior ministry said at the time.
The prisoners had tried to escape, the ministry said.
The next hearing will be held on November 12, they said.
The trial is the first of police officers accused of killings in a massive crackdown on Islamists which followed the army's July 3 ouster of democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi.
The officers are charged with manslaughter. They include the deputy head of a Cairo police station from where the prisoners were being transferred.
The prisoners, arrested during clashes with security forces, died from suffocation when police fired tear gas canisters into the truck transporting them to a prison on Cairo's outskirts, the interior ministry said at the time.
The prisoners had tried to escape, the ministry said.