Egypt refers army captain involved in hit-and-run case to criminal trial before court martial

An army officer who had allegedly run over a civilian family earlier this month has been referred to an urgent criminal trial before a court-martial, the official spokesman of the Egyptian armed forces said in a statement on Sunday evening.    

The military prosecution has finalised investigations into the incident before referring the army captain, who worked as a military physician, to trial, the statement added, without elaborating further.

A military prosecutor had earlier charged the alleged perpetrator with the premeditated murder of a mother and the attempted homicide of her husband and their three children on the outskirts of the capital Cairo, an incident that stirred up a public outcry in the North African country.

The officer in question has been remanded in custody pending trial.

According to witnesses, 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.  

Her husband, Hamdan Zaki, a veterinarian, escaped with minor injuries, while all three children were hospitalised with major injuries; one required necessary 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 into the local police station, claiming he only drove too fast. This remained the official narrative for a while and was adopted by state-run news outlets known for being loyal to the regime and the armed forces.

On the other hand, the father 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.

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.