Prosecutors order release of policeman accused of involvement in deadly Suez shooting

Wednesday 25-02-2015 05:55 PM
Prosecutors order release of policeman accused of involvement in deadly Suez shooting

Police gesture as they stand guard at a square in central Cairo January 26, 2015. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

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CAIRO, Feb 25 (Aswat Masriya) - Prosecutors in Suez ordered on Wednesday the release of one of two policemen accused of involvement in the deadly shooting of two brothers last month.   

The prosecution said that according to an investigation, the police officer was not involved in the killings. The other police officer, however, remains in custody. 

Bullet projectiles extracted from the bodies of the deceased brothers have matched a weapon belonging to the police officer who remains in detention.  

On January 5, two brothers were killed near a security checkpoint after reportedly refusing to adhere to orders to stop.  

An autopsy report stated that a single bullet caused the pair's deaths, after it penetrated the head of the brother sitting in the back, ending up in the head of one driving the motorbike.

Egypt's top prosecutor had ordered their detention the next day, pending an investigation. Prosecutors leveled murder charges against the policemen.

The officers told prosecutors last month that the shooting was not intentional. They said they were shooting into the air; the bullets hit the victims "by mistake".  

Suez Security Director Tarek al-Gazzar previously told Aswat Masriya that the two killed men were driving an unlicensed motorbike, which aroused suspicion among security forces at the checkpoint. The men sped away when an officer asked them to stop, Gazzar said, prompting the officer to fire at them. 

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