The Cairo Criminal Court adjourned Sunday the retrial of a police officer to issue its verdict on 19 June, as he was previously found guilty of killing Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh, member of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party (SPAP), whose death sparked local and international controversy. Al-Sabbagh became known as the “flowers’ martyr.”

Moreover, the court ordered that the defendant remain in custody. Yassin Saleh, an officer at the Central Security Forces unit at the Ministry of Interior was sentenced in June 2015 to a strict 15-year-term in prison after being charged with shooting Al-Sabbagh to death, amid the use of unjustified violence in a limited peaceful march.

Al-Sabbagh and other party members were marching on 24 January 2015 and carrying flowers in commemoration of those who died during the 25 January Revolution.

But last October, the Cassation Court annulled the verdict and granted the defendant a retrial.