ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Inside the Alexandria courtroom on March 3, Mahmoud Salah Mahmoud, one of the police officers charged with the death of Khaled Said, 28, reeled back when the judge announced he would be serving a 10-year prison sentence alongside co-defendant Awad Soliman. A guard inside the dock rubbed Mahmoud's back. It was a gesture of pitiful consolation surrounded by an iron cage, a wall of geared-up Central Security Forces troops.
Arguments had already broken out between police and members of the defendants' families. "Where are the police generals?" Mahmoud's brother screamed after the verdict was announced. "Why do they not protect their officers?"