Egypt lawyer, family: Police tortured street vendor to death

An Egyptian lawyer and the victim's family are accusing the country's police of beating and torturing to death a street vendor while in custody, the latest in a string of cases that have triggered criticism of police brutality and outrage on social media.

Lawyer Ali al-Halawani says the 53-year-old Magdy Maken, a fish cart vendor, was arrested on Sunday after an altercation with the police.

The lawyer says the vendor was taken to a police station in Cairo's middle class neighborhood of el-Ameriyah. Hours after his arrest, his lifeless body was brought to a nearby hospital with "torture marks."

Videos of the vendor's bloodied body have surfaced on social media.
 

Anger at police brutality was a main grievance behind the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.