In response to public outcry, Egyptian military captain charged with 'homicide', 'attempted murder' of civilian family

An Egyptian army captain has been officially accused of the premeditated murder of a mother and the attempted homicide of her husband and their three children earlier last week on the outskirts of the capital Cairo, an incident that stirred up a public outcry in the North African country.

The military prosecution has placed the alleged perpetrator, who worked as a military physician, in custody pending trial, the official military spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday, without elaborating further.

Basma Ali, an Egyptian pharmacist who worked for Kuwait's Ministry of Health, was instantly killed when the army captain allegedly ran over her body and her family with his car in a moment of fury, according to witnesses.  

Her husband, Hamdan Zaki, a veterinarian, escaped with minor injuries, while all their three children have been hospitalised with major injuries, one requiring surgery.

The family were on holiday visiting Egypt from Kuwait and owned a villa in Madinaty, a gated community east of Cairo.

The father claimed that the incident took place following an argument between the officer and the family after one of the children scratched his car while playing with his scooter outside their house.

After the alleged attack, the officer handed himself to the local police station, claiming he only drove too fast, which remained the official narrative for a while and was adopted by state-run news outlets.

The father, on the other hand, filed a police report contradicting the officer's claims and alleging the incident was deliberate.

The horrific case highlighted a culture of immunity the Egyptian army enjoys in the country, sparking the outrage of activists and social media users nationwide.

In December last year, a similar incident involving a military pilot who reportedly attacked civilian nurses at a public hospital in the northern region of the country, leading a pregnant one to sustain a miscarriage as a result. It was eventually shelved by the military prosecution and the officer got acquitted.   

"During the decade the army was fighting terrorism, mostly in North Sinai, army officers were granted immunity in case of killing alleged terrorists, which may have led many to use this as a carte blanche' to arrogantly overreact towards civilians," a prominent professor of political sociology told The New Arab on condition of anonymity.  

"There is a general state of mistrust in the judicial system and the army's prejudice against civilians based on previous confrontations between the army and the people. It army spokesman four days to release a statement reassuring the public that justice would be served in response to the social media reactions that blamed military institutions for not vetting its members," the professor added.  

Egypt has been under military rule since 1952, except for a single year during which the first-ever democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi ran the country before he was ousted by the then-defence minister Sisi in July 2013.