CAIRO, June 11 (Aswat Masriya) - The Cairo Criminal court postponed on Saturday the trial of low-ranking policeman accused of killing a tea vendor and injuring two more people last April, to July 9.

The tea vendor's defence lawyers requested a compensation of EGP 10 million to the vendor's family and EGP 10,000 to the injured people.

The low-ranking policeman,  Zeinhum Abdel Razek, shot dead a tea vendor and injured two more people in the upscale suburban neighbourhood of Rehab, after a quarrel over his refusal to pay for a cup of tea.

Shortly after the incident,  the interior ministry said the policeman fired the shot after a stand-off between him and the vendor "over the price of a drink.” 

Citing a witness, Reuters reported then that a crowd gathered and overturned a police vehicle and began beating up another policeman at the scene of the incident.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed the importance of deterring “irresponsible” police performance on the street on day after the incident.   

On Apr 27, Egypt's top prosecutor referred the low-ranking policeman to the criminal court.

Human rights workers, activists, and ordinary citizens have largely scrutinised police brutality in Egypt over the past few months. The interior ministry, however, maintains that these are "isolated incidents" that do not reflect the entire ministry.

On Feb. 18, a policeman shot dead a driver in the al-Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood over the cost of loading goods.

The incident also sparked public outrage at the police and hundreds took to protest in Cairo's streets after the killing, in an expression of anger that has become rare in the past few years.

Police brutality was one of the triggers of the Jan. 25, 2011 Uprising, sparked by protests on Police Day in Egypt aimed to draw attention to the police's use of excessive, at times fatal, force.