Egypt to probe police beating of naked man

CAIRO -- Egypt's Interior Minister vowed Saturday to investigate the beating of a naked man by riot police that threatened to further inflame popular anger against security forces, but suggested that initial results absolve the police of direct abuse.

The beating was caught on camera and broadcast live on TV late Friday as protests raged in the streets outside the presidential palace. Video showed police trying to bundle the naked man into a police van after beating him.

Less than 24 hours after the attack, several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched again on the palace Saturday, denouncing the police and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi after a week of violent protests that claimed more than 60 lives nationwide.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said that initial results from the public prosecutor's investigation show that Hamada Saber, 48, was undressed by "rioters" during skirmishes between police and protesters. He was then hit in the foot by bird shot, the interior minister said.

"The central security forces then found him lying on the ground and tried to put him in an armored vehicle, though the way in which they did that was excessive," Ibrahim said.

In the footage from Friday, at least seven black-clad riot police beat Saber, whose pants are down around his ankles, with sticks before dragging him along the muddy pavement and tossing him into a police van. -- AP