Shaimaa al-Sabbagh family paid by Egypt, lawyer says

Egypt has paid about 300,000 Egyptian pounds, less than $6,000, to the family of activist and poet Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, more than 11 years after police shot her dead, the family's lawyer said Monday.

Ali Suleiman told AFP the family received the compensation last week after repeated delays, although a court ordered the payment in 2023. He said the legal battle with the Ministry of Interior was not about the money but about confirming that the ministry had made a mistake.

Sabbagh, 34, was killed on January 24, 2015, on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Egypt's January 25 uprising. She had just laid flowers at a Tahrir Square memorial for people killed during the 2011 protests when she was shot in the back with birdshot, which police regularly used at the time to disperse demonstrators.

Images of protesters carrying the wounded Sabbagh made her a symbol of Egyptian activism. The officer who shot her received a seven-year sentence in 2020 after earlier 15- and 10-year sentences were appealed.

The payment comes in a country where unauthorised protests are outlawed and rare, and where rulings in favour of protesters have been scarce since 2014.