[JURIST] An Egyptian court has convicted three police officers for torturing and publicly humiliating a suspected thief, according to "judicial sources" cited by Reuters Saturday. The higher-ranking police officer was sentenced to five years in jail, while the two lower-ranking officers were sent to jail for one year each. According to the court, the three officers beat the detainee with batons and forced him to wear women's clothing in public, which violated the prisoner's honor. Reuters has more.

The sentencing is part of the country's recent crackdown on police brutality. In November, two police officers were sentenced to three years in prison [JURIST report] for sodomizing and beating detainee Emad el-Kabir in 2006 while videoing the incident on a cell phone. Egyptian bloggers posted the video on the Internet later that year. In April, Amnesty International released a report [text; JURIST report] criticizing Egypt for systematic human rights abuses of detainees in its police stations, military camps and centers run by State Security Investigations.