Cairo Criminal Court has sentenced two police officers to five years rigorous imprisonment each for torturing a lawyer to death.

Officer Omar Mahmoud and Mohamed al Anwar were convicted on Saturday of beating Karim Hamdy, a lawyer, to death inside al Matariya Police Station.

The two defendants, who had been released pending the trial, did not show up in the court today.

The police officers had held the lawyer at the police station to coerce him to admit to committing crimes in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood group.

An arrest warrant had been issued for the lawyer over accusations of joining a terrorist group and attempting to carry out acts of violence.

Sources: MENA