The justice ministry is investigating the accuracy of comments by a forensic authority spokesman who said a female activist died from birdshot wounds because she was “too slim.”
Shaimaa El-Sabagh, 33, was killed on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the January 25 revolution when police fired birdshot at a small group of protesters who planned to lay a wreath for the revolution’s martyrs in Tahrir Square.
Last week, the prosecutor-general charged a police officer with El-Sabagh's killing, accusing him of carrying out a "beating that led to death."
"The right decision will be taken upon investigation," a statement by the ministry of justice read.
Forensic authority spokesman Hisham Abdel-Hamid said El-Sabagh had "no fats, so [birdshot] pellets easily penetrated her heart and lungs causing her death."
"It is impossible that small birdshot pellets from an eight-metre distance would kill… but this was her fate," Abdel-Hamid told a news show on private television channel Sada El-Balad.
The prosecution said investigations revealed El-Sabagh died from wounds sustained from "light birdshot" after a central security forces officer shot at her and other protesters.
Her party, the Socialist Popular Alliance, accused the police of "premeditated murder." Police officials initially denied that security forces played a role in El-Sabagh's death.
