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Friday, July 02, 2010

Egypt puts police killers of Khaled Saeed in custody

From Gulf News:
Egyptian authorities' decision to jail two policemen accused of "using harsh treatment” to an activist is a victory for protest groups, activists said on Friday.

"Jailing the two detectives accused of beaten Khaled Saeed to death is a victory for the pressure mounted by the protest groups, who have called for uncovering the truth in this case through street and Internet protests,” said the opposition movement April 6 Youth.

The death of Saeed, 28, due to alleged torture by two plainclothes policemen in the Egyptian port of Alexandria on June 6 has angered opposition and human rights groups who accuse police of abusing the 29-year-old Emergency Law to stifle freedom.

On Wednesday, prosecutors ordered the jailing of the two detectives Mohammad Salah and Awad Esmail for four days pending further questioning.
I found this part interesting:
The European Union has expressed concern about Saeed's death, a move that drew an angry response from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry that denounced it as an "unacceptable interference” in the country's affairs.
Unlike Israel when it is accused of various crimes, Egypt didn't try to explain, apologize, offer concessions, send out PR ambassadors, create YouTube videos or contextualize. They just told their critics to butt out. In fact, they told it to them very emphatically:

Egypt Wednesday summoned ambassadors of the European Union countries to protest against a recent statement, which expressed concern about the death of a young Egyptian whose family say was beaten to death by police.

"Regardless of the content of the statement, this move constitutes a glaring violation of the diplomatic norms and an unacceptable interference in Egypt's internal affairs," said the spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, according to the official Middle East News Agency.
And you just know that the EU didn't push back on this criticism.

You also know that if Israel would act like Egypt did, it would be the subject of withering diplomatic and media attacks for weeks thereafter.