Egypt sentences 6 inmates for beating jailed Frenchman to death

Cairo: An Egyptian court on Sunday handed down seven-year prison sentences to six men convicted of beating to death a jailed Frenchman in 2013, while his family and the defence have blamed the authorities.

Forty-nine-year-old Eric Lang, who taught French in Cairo, died after a beating in a cell on September 13, after spending six days in a Cairo police station.

Lang had been stopped on the street because he was not carrying identification and was then detained because his visa was not valid.

Lang had remained in detention although the prosecution had ordered his release a day after his arrest, family lawyer Raphael Kempf had said.

According to the prosecution's case, six inmates in his cell had beaten him to death. They were convicted on Sunday of "assault leading to death," according to the verdict read by a court official in Cairo.

Several of the defendants' lawyers had called into question the prosecution's case, arguing the autopsy showed he had been beaten for more than six hours with a rod, according to one of the lawyers, suggesting police involvement.

Lang's mother and sister had also cast doubts on the official account, and filed complaints against two police officials and the interior minister over the failure to rescue him.

"He was arrested, tortured, killed for nothing, and France did not help in releasing him when he should have been extradited," Nicole Prost, Lang's mother, said at an April 13 news conference in Paris.

The French government called for justice at the time.

"France is mobilized, in Paris like in Cairo, for the truth of this tragedy to be uncovered, and to request that Egyptian authorities ensure us there would not be impunity and that those responsible face justice," said a foreign ministry spokesman.

Lang had been detained during a tense time in Cairo, when police and the military had been out in force to quash protests by Islamist supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

International and domestic rights organizations say the police regularly torture and kill detainees and prisoners while in custody, something the interior ministry denies.

The verdict on Sunday comes as Egypt fends off accusations of police involvement in the death of Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose badly mutilated body as found after he disappeared in Cairo in January.

Egypt has denied police were involved in Regeni's death, and its interior ministry had suggested a criminal gang was behind his death, a theory ridiculed in Italy.

Italy recalled its ambassador to Egypt, after accusing Cairo of not providing all the information it needed to investigate Regeni's death.