Witness of police-led massacre is beaten, jailed & his home raided

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 

Egypt: Rab’a Witness Detained at Protest

Beaten, House Raided

 

September 1, 2014

 

Egyptian security forces on August 29, 2014 arrested, at a demonstration, an academic who had provided information about the massacre of protesters in Rab’a Square in August, 2013. Police also raided the man’s home and beat him, his lawyer and a relative told Human Rights Watch.

Mohamed Tareq, who previously taught at Alexandria University, was one of eight men arrested at a demonstration in Alexandria on August 29. Prosecutors ordered a 15-day detention for five of the men, including Tareq, pending interrogations into accusations of protesting without authorization, illegal public assembly, blocking traffic, and membership in the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Saeed, an Alexandria lawyer working on the case, told Human Rights Watch.

“After more than a year of denying wrongdoing and covering up its grave abuses for the Rab’a massacre, beating and raiding the home of an academic who described what he saw there would be a new low,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Egyptian police should know that the further they go down the road of repression, the louder calls for accountability will grow.”

Tareq provided evidence that Human Rights Watch used in an August 2014 report about the Rab’a dispersal, “All According to Plan: The Rab’a Massacre and Mass Killings of Protesters in Egypt” and appeared in a video Human Rights Watch released about the subject.

The arrest and accusations appear to be unrelated to Tareq’s interview with Human Rights Watch. Saeed said, however, that, among the eight men arrested, Tareq was the only one beaten and whose home was raided. Police significantly damaged his house and confiscated materials commemorating the Rab’a massacre during the raid on August 29, Saeed and the relative told Human Rights Watch. Prosecutors have instructed the Forensic Medical Authority to evaluate Tareq’s injuries to establish whether police beat him, Saeed said.

Tareq had given numerous statements to the media about the horrific events he witnessed and experienced on August 14, 2013. Tareq was seriously injured during the Rab’a massacre, with gunshot wounds to his arm and chest.

Tareq taught in the Faculty of Sciences of Alexandria University until he was dismissed in 2010 for demonstrating against the brutal beating and killing of Khaled Said, who became an iconic figure during the 2011 uprising, by Egyptian police. He has been an activist for years with different groups, including the Al-Ghad Party and the National Association for Change formerly led by Mohamed al-Baradei.

As of September 1, Tareq and the four other men were being held at Moharram Bek police station in Alexandria. They are next due to appear in court on September 10.

Egyptian authorities should release the men or promptly charge them with offenses that do not violate their rights. The authorities should protect the men from mistreatment and provide full due process rights, including regular access to counsel and family visits as well as all necessary medical care. If they are charged, they should have the opportunity to review evidence and mount a meaningful defense.
 

Court sentences 9 activists to 2 yrs in prison & fines for "unauthorized" protest

Daily News Egypt

Mahienour El-Massry, 8 others sentenced to 2 years 

Alexandria court upholds sentence for protests outside Khaled Said trial

Tuesday May 20, 2014

Ali Omar

An Alexandria court sentenced Tuesday nine activists, including prominent lawyer Mahienour El-Massry, to two years in prison and an EGP 50,000 fine.

The activists were detained and convicted of blocking a road, destroying a police vehicle, protesting without a permit and assaulting a police officer outside the trial of policemen charged with the death of Khaled Said.

Arrest warrants for the activists were issued on 9 December and the initial ruling on the case was announced on 2 January.

The protest in question took place in Alexandria on 2 December 2013 and was allegedly organised by Said’s mother, who refused to obtain permission from the Ministry of Interior. “The protest is against the police,” Said’s mother said. “How do you expect us to ask for permission from the institution we are protesting against?”

El-Massry is currently facing trial on separate charges for an incident that occurred in March 2013. Allegedly, a number of members of the Al-Dostour Party were “assaulted by members of the Muslim Brotherhood”, said Mohamed Ramadan, a lawyer representing the defendants and a witness to the incident.


*Photo courtesy of police arresting activists in Alexandria courtesy of AFP

Dictator Morsi praises police for killing civilians

Associated Press
Egypt's president praises police despite criticism

Sunday, March 17, 2013

AP - CAIRO: President Mohammed Morsi addressed riot police at one of their camps near Cairo before joining them in weekly Friday prayers in a show of solidarity with the force.

The riot police, known as Central Security, have been at the forefront of deadly clashes with protesters the past two years since the 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Hundreds of protesters have been killed over that period, and rights groups accuse the police of using snipers and lethal force. Policemen also have been killed and have suffered serious injuries.

Over the past weeks, thousands of officers and low-ranking policemen staged protests outside police stations and refused to work. Some accuse the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, of trying to control the force. 

The Brotherhood denies the claims. Others demand higher wages, better working conditions, greater firepower and stronger immunity from prosecution for carrying out their duties. Many are demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, head of the security forces.

With the interior minister and riot police commander standing beside him, Morsi praised the police for keeping security.

"This country loves you, hugs you and protects you, and always expects from you courage and sacrifice," he said.

He seemed to laud them for a role in the uprising against Mubarak, which began on Jan. 25, 2011 — and which the police tried to crush. A government report obtained this week by The Associated Press concluded that police were behind the deaths of nearly 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising.

The police "were at the heart" of Jan. 25 revolution, Morsi said in his speech, after praising them for being "at the heart" of earlier Egyptian victories.

"Almighty God willed that Jan. 25 also be Police Day, a day of remembering the sacrifices of the police."

The 2011 revolution was sparked in large part by outrage over abuses and torture by the police, which under Mubarak targeted opponents including the Muslim Brotherhood. 

 

The uprising began when anti-torture activists called an anti-police protest coinciding with Police Day, a public holiday commemorating the security forces. When huge crowds joined the rallies and turned them into anti-Mubarak protests, police cracked down, sparking days of bloody fighting. The Brotherhood joined the revolt.

In his speech, Morsi warned the police against divisions.

"Be aware, as I know you are, against breaking ranks or else our enemy will break us all," Morsi said. "Our enemy outside the country is happy when we are divided."

Rights activists on Facebook denounced Morsi's speech and questioned his suggestion that police were at the heart of the uprising.

"Instead of this talk that turns the facts upside down in an attempt to reach out to riot police, should it not be a priority first of the president to put forth a plan to repair the relationship between police and the people?" asked one group dedicated to the case of Khaled Said, a young man tortured to death by police in 2010. Said's death was a rallying cry in the anti-Mubarak protests.

Morsi acknowledged changes that have swept Egypt since the revolution, saying that his June 30 election as the country's first freely elected and first civilian president was a historical turning point for the police force.

In the past two years, around 100 policemen have been tried in cases related to the killing of protesters with almost all ending in acquittals.

Reform of the police is among protesters' top demands.

In the restive Suez Canal city of Port Said, thousands of residents rallied against Morsi on Friday. They also demanded retribution for the killing of around 45 people in clashes with police there this year.

The protest came a day after Morsi delivered a televised message to the people of Port Said, promising investigations that would uncover perpetrators of the recent unrest there.

Last week, protesters in the city torched security headquarters there, forcing the police to withdraw from the streets. The army, which took over security of the city, was enthusiastically welcomed.

That sentiment was echoed in Cairo, where several hundred people rallied on Friday in support of bringing back military rule and ousting Morsi.

Egypt: Nation without torture: Essam Atta remembered

Egypt Independent
For a nation without torture: Essam Atta remembered 

November 4, 2012


Jano Charbel

A crowd of over 1,000 people attended an event near the Interior Ministry on Saturday night to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Essam Atta — known as “the Martyr of Egypt’s Military Trials” — and to launch a street campaign dubbed “A Nation Without Torture.”

A stage was erected by a concrete barrier blocking Mansour Street, which leads to the Interior Ministry in downtown Cairo. From this stage, speeches were delivered by victims of army and police torture, documentaries were screened, and artists performed songs in commemoration of Egypt’s victims of torture and military trials.

Estimates suggest that well over 12,000 civilians have been subjected to military trials since the outbreak of the 25 January revolution, around 7,000 of whom were indicted. Reports published by local human rights groups reveal that hundreds of other civilians have been tortured, beaten, abused, raped and even killed by the police and armed forces. These violations are still being reported.

Hend Badawi, a victim of army torture, is now an organizer of “A Nation Without Torture.” According to the young activist, this street campaign will be conducted in residential quarters across Cairo and other cities, and will involve screenings of documentaries about torture and military trials.

Badawi reminded the audience of the campaign’s hotline: 011-2762-4711. For further outreach, “A Nation Without Torture” has established a Facebook account and a Twitter account where cases of torture may be reported and documented.

Badawi added that this campaign would also involve rallies and marches against security forces’ abuses so as to pressure authorities “to hold torturers accountable for their crimes, and to put them on trial.” Furthermore, these protest actions aim at pressuring statesmen “to enforce anti-torture legislation, which exists only on paper,” said Badawi. The activist expressed her ambitious aspiration to have civil society organizations overseeing prisons and inmates’ conditions nationwide.

The brutal death of Essam Atta was the focal point of this event. 24-year-old Atta stood trial on 25 February 2011 on charges of brawling and the illegal occupation of an apartment. After being sentenced by a military tribunal to two years imprisonment, Atta was reportedly tortured to death while in detention at Tora Prison on 27 October 2011.

One day prior to his death, Atta is said to have contacted his family to inform them that he was being tortured by a prison police officer named Nour Abdel Hameed. Atta reportedly told his family that he was suffering from internal bleeding caused by torture. 

Atta’s family, friends, lawyers and supporters have provided evidence that he was tortured to death by this officer, who injected a pressurized water hose into the prisoner’s anus. Photos and films taken in a morgue show the deceased Atta with blood oozing from his mouth and nose.

However, prison authorities claim that Atta had overdosed and died from ingesting a large quantity of Tramadol pills (prescription synthetic opiate medication) which he had attempted to smuggle into the prison.

Atta’s family and friends claim that these charges are baseless, and similar to the trumped-up accusations leveled against Khaled Saeed, an Alexandrian blogger whom police beat to death in June 2010. Officials from the Mubarak regime had argued that Saeed had died by suffocating on a large bag of marijuana which he was attempting to swallow and conceal from the police.

Atta’s supporters indicate that he was tortured for smuggling in a SIM card, not drugs.

Atta’s mother, Inaam Youssef, briefly addressed the audience from the stage on Mansour Street on Saturday night.

“Just as I have suffered from the death of my son, I hope his mother suffers over her son,” she said, referring to her son’s killer. Youssef wept as she called on President Mohamed Morsy “to intercede and seek justice for him [Atta] and for all of the other martyrs.”

Human rights activist and co-founder of the No to Military Trials Campaign Mona Seif told Egypt Independent that “nothing has been done to bring Nour Abdel Hameed to justice. Nothing has even been done to hold him accountable for the crimes he perpetrated against prisoners.”

Seif pointed out that another Tora detainee, “an inmate named Amr Rashad, had also filed a complaint against Abdel Hameed accusing the officer of ordering his rape.”

Seif expressed skepticism regarding the new regime’s willingness to release or retry around 2,000 civilians still in prison after being sentenced by military courts. Seif does not expect that Morsy’s general amnesty for revolution-related offenses will have any effect on civilians indicted by military courts.

“Morsy’s amnesty still has not yet been implemented,” said Seif, adding “We’re expecting that only a trivial number of people will be released from prisons for their actions in supporting the revolution.” Seif explained that civilians tried before military courts are, more often than not, wrongly accused of thuggery, as opposed to revolution-related offenses.

“The authorities claim that there are 1,101 civilians currently in prison” who were sentenced by military courts, Seif said, “yet the actual number of these prisoners could be closer to 2,000. 

Among these prisoners are a number of minors between the ages of 15 and 17, who have been issued sentences ranging from 10 to 12 years imprisonment.” Many of the prisoners are still being subjected to torture, abuse, and mistreatment in detention, said Seif.

Atta’s brother, Mohamed, addressed the audience on Mansour Street reiterating that “Essam had nothing to do with drugs or thuggery. These are all fabricated allegations.”

“Shame on all security forces that torture and abuse the Egyptian people. If we stand together, we will be able to bring Essam’s killers to justice,” he added.

Another torture victim, Ahmad Taha, shouted, “The death of Essam Atta proves that the dogs of the Interior Ministry are still in control, and have continued to oppress the populace since the [25 January] revolution.”

“The police are the same,” Taha said. “These dogs will remain dogs. However, we will no longer remain quiet regarding torture. We will no longer allow torture to take place in this country.”

A 53-page report issued by Al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence was distributed at Saturday’s event. The report details 88 cases of torture, 34 extra-judicial killings, and seven rapes perpetrated by security forces during President Morsy’s first 100 days in office.

Al-Nadeem Center is one of the groups endorsing “A Nation Without Torture.” Other groups include the ' No to Military Trials' Campaign, the Mosireen Cultural Cooperative, the Hakmouhom (Put Them On Trial) Campaign, and the Free Egyptian Movement.

Egypt commemorates revolutionary martyr Khaled Said

ABNA.com
Hundreds of Egyptians remember death of revolutionary man 'Khaled Said'

June 7, 2012

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets across Egypt to mark the second anniversary of Egyptian police’s killing of Khaled Said, the development which eventually sparked last year’s revolution.

On Wednesday, demonstrations were staged in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, Said’s hometown of Alexandria, as well as the northeastern and eastern cities of Ismailia and Asyut, AFP reported.

On June 6, 2010, the 28-year-old was beaten by plainclothes police officers after he questioned them when they demanded to see people's ID cards at an internet café in Alexandria’s Sidi Gaber neighborhood. They subsequently smashed his head against a marble shelf before driving off with Said in their car and returning to dump his dead body into the street outside of the café.

His death made him the symbol of police repression and provoked last year’s nationwide popular protests that eventually deposed the country’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

On Saturday, Mubarak and his former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli were sentenced to life in prison and six police chiefs were acquitted of the murder of protesters during the revolution.

However, Mubarak and the seven other defendants were charged with ordering the killing of nearly 900 protesters.

The verdict sparked fierce clashes between the families of the victims and security officials inside the court, while angry spectators called the court illegitimate and demanded that Mubarak be executed.

Egyptians Rally for Blogger Jailed for Defying Military Prosecutor

New York Times
Egyptians Rally for Blogger Jailed for Defying Military Prosecutor

October 31, 2011


ROBERT MACKEY

Egyptian activists rallied in Cairo on Monday night, demanding the release of an imprisoned blogger and an end to military trials for civilians. Supporters of the blogger, Alaa Abd El Fattah, chanted slogans demanding his freedom outside his cell.

Mr. Fattah was detained on Sunday after he responded to a summons from a military prosecutor but refused to answer any questions about a protest he attended on Oct. 9, which ended in violence and the deaths of 28 people, most of them Coptic Christians.

Although the authorities initially blamed that night’s violence on protesters, eyewitnesses claimed that soldiers had used excessive force, firing live ammunition and driving armored personnel carriers into crowds outside the headquarters of state television, known as Maspiro.

As the Committee to Protect Journalists explained on Monday, days before he was summoned by the military prosecutor, Mr. Fattah published an opinion piece in the independent daily Al-Shorouk in which he criticized the military’s investigation of the clashes, “saying it could not conduct an impartial investigation into its own activities.” Mr. Fattah’s article for the Egyptian newspaper also described what he witnessed at the protest, and at a Coptic hospital where the wounded and dead were taken after it. He referred pointedly to the soldiers now ruling Egypt as “Mubarak’s military.”

After his article was published, a counterrevolutionary blogger who goes by the name Ahmed Spider struck back at Mr. Fattah, charging that he had incited Christian protesters to attack soldiers. Mr. Fattah, who has been a leading figure in protests this year, has consistently maintained that protesters have used violence only in self-defense, when attacked.

On his way to the hearing on Sunday, Mr. Fattah told Reuters, “They committed a massacre, a horrible crime, and now they are working on framing someone else for it.” He added, “Instead of launching a proper investigation, they are sending activists to trial for saying the plain truth, and that is that the army committed a crime in cold blood.”

The Egyptian news site Ahram Online reported on Sunday that Mr. Fattah refused to submit to interrogation, “on the grounds that the military prosecution had no legitimate right to question civilians.”

Since Jan. 28, the third day of Egypt’s revolution, military tribunals have conducted about 12,000 trials of Egyptian civilians, resulting in more than 8,000 convictions. Mr. Fattah’s sister Mona Seif helps lead a group dedicated to ending military trials for Egyptian civilians.

Another activist, Bahaa Saber, who also defied the prosecutor’s authority, was released. A video posted on YouTube on Sunday showed Mr. Saber leading chants against the military as soon as he left the prosecutor’s office.

On Monday night, Mr. Saber again led chants against Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Mr. Fattah’s father, a human rights lawyer, reminded Ahram Online that his son and Mr. Saber “were both detained for supporting the independence of the judiciary in 2006.”

“They both stood against Mubarak and were ready to pay a price and now they are doing the same,” the father said.

As a profile of the activist blogger in Ahram Online explained, Mr. Fattah was brought up in a family of leftists with a long history of political activism. His father, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamed, is a prominent lawyer and human rights activist who used to run the Cairo-based Hisham Mubarak Law Center. Ahmed Seif El-Islam was arrested in the 1980s and imprisoned for five years for his political activity.

Mr. Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, is an activist and a professor at Cairo University. An aunt, Ahdaf Soueif, is a novelist who suggested, in a scathing commentary on the Oct. 9 violence, that the men who rule Egypt wanted to provoke sectarian clashes to justify their continued grip on power.

Mr. Fattah’s wife, Manal Hassan, is also an activist, and the couple collaborate on a blog. As Ahram Online explained, they were living in South Africa until January, “when they took the first flight to Cairo to join Tahrir Square protesters as the revolution erupted.” The news site added:

Following Mubarak’s ouster and concomitant promises of democratic transition, the couple decided to return to Egypt on a permanent basis. Through their Twitter accounts, @alaa and @manal, the couple announced their intention to have a baby. The baby, they noted, would be named Khaled after Khaled Said, the young man from Alexandria beaten to death by police last year who became a posthumous icon of Egypt’s revolution.

Although she is due to give birth soon, Ms. Hassan marched for her husband on Monday night. That led another activist blogger, Lilian Wagdy, to write: “Today an unborn child marched with us to demand the freedom of his daddy. Khaled is perhaps the youngest revolutionary ever.”

Last week, when Mr. Fattah was in San Francisco to speak at the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, the White House said President Obama had pressed the head of Egypt’s armed forces to end military trials for civilians. Now, following Mr. Fattah’s arrest, American Internet activists have begun an online petition campaign asking Mr. Obama to call on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces “to immediately and unconditionally end emergency law and stop the military trial and detention of civilians.”

*Photo courtesy of Access

Egypt: Latest torture death prompts rage against military junta

Al-Ahram Online
Latest alleged torture death in Egypt prompts public outcry against SCAF

Friday 28 Oct 2011

The alleged torturing to death of Essam Atta on Thursday triggers public outrage over recurring human rights violations by Egypt's military rulers


Hatem Maher

The death of Essam Atta, who was reportedly tortured to death in Cairo’s Torah Prison on Thursday, is sure to further encourage popular discontent with Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

According to the Cairo-based El-Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, police officers punished Atta for smuggling a mobile-phone SIM card into his cell by inserting hoses into his mouth and anus, which reportedly led to bleeding and caused his subsequent death.

The 24-year-old was arrested on 25 February in relation to the illegal occupation of an apartment and, after being tried by a military court, sentenced to two years in Tora Prison, in which a number of former Mubarak regime figures are currently being held.

Members of Atta’s family, who had been preparing to appeal the court verdict, said that Atta had contacted them on Wednesday to say he had been mistreated by prison guards.

The latest incident comes only one day after two policemen were each given seven-year jail terms for a similar crime – the murder last year of 28-year-old Khaled Said in Alexandria – a charge seen by many activists as far too lenient.

“Who will hold the army accountable for the death of Essam Atta?” asked Heba Raouf, a political science professor at Cairo University. “Who will protect the rights of civilians like Essam – even if they are petty criminals?”

The SCAF is already struggling to appease protesters and activists following numerous human rights violations committed by authorities since the council assumed power in February after the ouster of longstanding president Hosni Mubarak.

Many had hoped the departure of Mubarak, under whom police torture had become routine, would see an end to such practices. Almost nine months later, however, such optimism appears to have been misplaced, with many activists and political observers going so far as to question the SCAF’s intentions.

The military council, for its part, has vowed to hand over executive power to an elected, civilian authority, although it has so far failed to set a definite timetable for highly-anticipated presidential elections.

The SCAF has already come under fire for referring some 12,000 civilians to military courts and imposing restrictions on media coverage. The military council has also been censured for repeated abuses against protesters, including conducting “virginity tests” on female detainees in March and clashing with Coptic Christian demonstrators in Cairo’s Maspero district earlier this month, leaving 26 dead.

Analysts note that, while the council has repeatedly stressed its readiness to accept criticism of its management of the current transitional period, its actions appear to contradict this.

Atta’s emotional message

Atta died shortly after being transferred to Cairo’s Qasr El-Eini Hospital, prompting a chorus of anger and condemnation on social networking websites.

On 7 October, a Facebook page calling for an end to the practice of trying civilians in military courts released an emotional message from Atta, whose family says he was simply watching a scuffle between two other men at the time of his arrest.

“I’m imprisoned because my family is poor. But I’m sure God will stand by me, as God is greater than all people,” he was quoted as saying 20 days before his death.

Influential Facebook page “We are all Khaled Said,” which played a major role organising the popular uprising that culminated in Mubarak’s ouster, swiftly denounced Atta’s murder and called on Egyptians to “rally against injustice.”

“Nothing whatsoever can justify what happened. Even if he’s a criminal, he can’t simply be killed without any due process. Justice is the only way to guarantee order in society,” the page reads.

It goes on: “A businessman was recently involved in clashes that featured the use of live ammunition, but was quickly released nevertheless. Meanwhile, poor people like Atta – who aren’t backed by high-profile figures – are arrested and humiliated. We must reconsider the ideas we’ve inherited.”

Observers have also contrasted the treatment meted out to Atta to that received by Ilan Grapel, a US-Israeli dual citizen detained in Cairo in June on espionage charges. Grapel, who was released on Thursday as part of a prisoner swap deal with Israel, has been quoted by Israeli media as saying: “I was isolated, but the guards were okay. They gave me what I wanted to eat, including fresh fish. They paid for my meals – more than the average Egyptian would get.”

Activists say they plan to hold a rally in front of the Zenhom Morgue in Cairo on Friday morning as they await official results from the forensic examination on Atta’s body.

Egypt’s interior ministry, meanwhile, has thus far refrained from commenting on his death – a silence that could end up tarnishing its already-battered image.

1,000s commemorate Khaled Said, & confront police brutality

Thousands protested across the country in memory of Khaled Said, 28 year-old blogger who died at the hands of Alexandrian police forces one year ago. In Cairo demonstrations, marches, and protest stands were held at the Interior Ministry, on Qasr el-Nil Bridge, and in Tahrir Square - amongst other locations.


Protesters commemorate the anniversary of Khaled Said's murder - outside the Interior Ministry. This protester carries a sign with the images of Said, and Tunisia's revolutionary/martyr Mohamed Bouazizi.


Female activists were very prominent in today's protests across Cairo. Along with hundreds of other women, Said's mother - Layla Marzouq - took part in Alexandria's protests.


Angry protesters chant against the Minister of the Interior - Mansour el-Eissawy. Hundreds of protesters chanted against the Interior Ministry and its thugs - especially in light of a minibus driver's death in police custody.


Protesters at Qasr el-Nil Bridge. Egyptian flag reads: Freedom & Dignity.

A silent protest stand was held for Khaled Said - along with the martyrs of the January 25th Revolution, and all other victims of police brutality/torture.


Around 1,000 protesters on the bridge, marched to join the protest outside the Interior Ministry.


In commemoration of this victim of police brutality - Khaled Said's portrait was spray-painted across the Interior Ministry's walls.


No to police brutality!


"Down with military rule! The revolutionaries are not thugs." Protesters chanted against the police, the military police, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.


The picture of (Martyr) Mohamed Abdel Latif was hung on the ministry's side gate. "We are all Khaled Said" spray-painted on gates. A banner bears the images of other martyrs of the January 25th Revolution.

Egypt: Activists to commemorate blogger's murder

The Egyptian Gazette
Egypt's activists to commemorate blogger's death

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Ashraf Madbouly


CAIRO - Activists nationwide are due to march Monday on the Nile Corniches in 18 different governorates, as well as outside police stations, marking the first anniversary of the death of Khaled Saeed, Egypt's most famous victim of police brutality.

"All free Egyptians are invited to show they are against police brutality. This is not a protest. Participants are urged to wear black in mourning the martyr Khaled Saeed," read a recurring post on 'We Are All Khaled Saeed', a group set up by a Google executive in sympathy with Saeed.

It added that the marches will be held on Nile Corniches up and down the country, in those places where the last protest prior to the revolution was held.

"Activists will then walk to police stations as well as to the home of Khaled Saeed in Alexandria," the post added.The biggest protest are expected outside Sidi Gaber Police Station, where the two policemen who beat Saeed to death worked, according to the group.

The death of Saeed is believed to be one of the triggers of the January 25 revolution, after images of his battered face were circulated across social media sites.

"The marches will start at 5pm in 18 governorates," read the post.

Aiming to help fight injustice in Egypt, the founders of 'We Are All Khaled Saeed' were among the first to call for the 25 January protests. "Let's make Khaled's anniversary a commemoration for all the revolution's martyrs," said his mother, Leila Marzouq.

Routine police abuse and torture, rife in Hosni Mubarak's era, were a driving force behind the massive popular protests that ousted the veteran strongman.

Egypt dissolves hated State Security force

REUTERS
Egypt dissolves hated internal security force

Tue Mar 15, 2011

Tom Perry

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt on Tuesday dissolved an internal security and spying agency whose reputation for brutality helped ignite the uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power last month.

The dissolution of state security marks another achievement for the Egyptian protest movement that forced Mubarak from office after three decades as president in a show of people power that continues to reverberate across the region.

Tantamount to Egypt's Stasi, state security was a hated symbol of Mubarak's rule and used by his administration to crush political opposition. Reformists feared that its survival was a risk to their hopes of establishing accountable government.

The Interior Ministry replaced state security with a new National Security Force, which would serve "the nation without interfering in the lives of citizens or their right to exercise their political rights," the state news agency reported.

Pressure for action grew after protesters stormed state security's offices across Egypt earlier this month, finding piles of shredded files, evidence of torture and documents showing the full extent of the agency's internal espionage.

Its head has been arrested and is facing investigation for ordering the killing of demonstrators during the uprising against Mubarak. Another 47 of its personnel have been detained on suspicion of destroying documents.

Opposition groups and reformists said state security officers must now be held to account so that Egypt can turn the page on the past.

Two state security policemen are standing trial over the death of Khaled Said, an online activist killed last year. His death is seen as a milestone on the road to the uprising.

Tunisia, whose popular uprising helped ignite the Egypt revolt, dissolved similar security services earlier this month.

DEMANDS FOR DISCLOSURE, ACCOUNTABILITY

"What is needed now is the trial of the leadership of the apparatus for what happened in the January revolution, the killing of demonstrators," said Abou Elela Mady, a reformist politician. "Disclosure is important for appeasing and satisfying the people."

Ayman Nour, an opposition figure who himself came under close state security scrutiny, echoed those demands and said the Interior Ministry should make a formal apology.

He has said Egypt must follow the example set by Germany after unification, holding to account people who had spied on fellow citizens. The Muslim Brotherhood said the dissolution of state security was "a step in the right direction."

The new security agency will be tasked with guarding internal security and fighting terrorism in line with the constitution and the principles of human rights, the state news agency reported.

"The selection and appointment of the officers of the new force will take place in the coming few days," it said.

One analyst said that members of the dissolved security force who had the right skills and training were expected to be absorbed by the national intelligence agency.

Mustapha Kamal al-Sayyid, a political scientist, said the dissolution of state security would boost the popularity of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the new cabinet it installed earlier this month.

The military council had initially only committed itself to constitutional amendments and holding free and fair elections.

But it has appeared ever more responsive to the demands of the reform movement as it manages the transitional period at the end of which power will be handed to an elected government.

"This will increase the popularity of the government and dissipate feelings that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces was not responding to the revolution's demands," Sayyid said.

He added: "It is very difficult to judge now if this decision is the dismantling of the state security apparatus or reforming it under a different name. It should be clearer in a matter of weeks."

*(Additional reporting by Sarah Mikhail and Marwa Awad)

Egypt: Police to be probed after 4th fatal beating

IOL News
Egyptian cops to be probed after fourth fatal beating

January 9 2011

Alexandria - The police force of the Egyptian city of Alexandria was facing accusations on Sunday that one of their prisoners was beaten to death while in custody.

It is the fourth such charge levelled against Egyptian law enforcement agencies within seven months.

The newest case revolves around a man named Sayed Bilal, 31, who reportedly died of a heart attack at a private hospital Thursday, a day after his arrest.

His lawyer, Khalaf Ahmed Bayoumi, Sunday accused the city police of violence leading to Bilal's death

“He was arrested without any legal warrants,” Bayoumi, who is also head of the Shehab Centre for Human Rights, told the German Press Agency dpa in a phone interview.

Security sources cited by the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper say Bilal was not subjected to any acts of torture during his detention.

But Bayoumi told dpa that police offered Bilal's family 100,000

Egyptian pounds , an apartment and employment for his brother if they do not testify against police. The lawyer said that his clients were threatened with arrest if they refused the offer and pursued the case in court.

Bilal's family has not yet testified to the attorney general, but a call for a formal investigation has been filed by Bayoumi.

“If he wasn't tortured, why did the police make such an offer?” asked Bayoumi.

A shaky mobile phone video circulating on YouTube showed marks on Bilal's feet and wrists, indicating spots from where Bilal might have been hung, said Bayoumi.

Bayoumi also said there was bruising on his client's back and shoulders from what appears to be severe beating.

Bilal was pictured in Sunday's newspapers sporting the heavy beard common with conservative Muslims, playing with his toddler in a photo that appears to have been taken shortly before his arrest.

He was a follower of the strict Islamic Salafist doctrine. His arrest came less than a week after a bomb ripped through a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria on New Year's Eve, killing 23 people and injuring up to 100.

While the government has said the attack was masterminded by “foreign elements,” a number of Salafists were arrested in the wake of the attack.

This latest case comes just months after Mustafa Attia, 39, was allegedly attacked and beaten to death by two plainclothes police officers in Alexandria.

Just before Attia's death, Amnesty International called for an independent investigation into the death of another Alexandria resident, 19-year-old Ahmed Shaaban.

According to his family, Shaaban's body was found in a canal, with signs of torture after he was detained by police.

Meanwhile, two police are on trial in Alexandria for the case of Khaled Said, 28, who died at the hands of police in early June. The two police officers were charged with assault, but not murder.

The case sparked outrage and large demonstrations against what many Egyptians saw as a police cover-up, after pictures of Said's severely disfigured face appeared on a Facebook group.

Sapa-dpa

Egypt must investigate death in police custody

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Egyptian authorities must ensure new death in custody case is fully investigated

16 November 2010

Egyptian authorities must independently investigate, without delay, allegations that a young man was tortured to death at a police station in Alexandria, and guarantee the safety of another young man still in custody there, Amnesty International said today.

The family of Ahmed Shaaban, a 19-year-old man, allege that he died after being tortured and physically abused by police officers at Sidi Gaber police station on 7 November, and that his body was then dumped into a canal near his neighbourhood to give the impression that he committed suicide.

"These disturbing allegations of enforced disappearance and death in custody, and possibly unlawful killing by police, must be immediately and fully investigated by an independent body," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Ahmed Shaaban went missing, allegedly in police detention, on 7 November. His corpse was returned to his family on 11 November, covered in bruises to the head and body, which family members attribute to police torture and beating.

Ahmed Shaaban's family learnt on 7 November that he was arrested at a police check point on his way back from a wedding, and taken to Sidi Gaber police station together with his friend, Ahmed Farrag Labib.

When the family went to look for Ahmed Shaaban at the police station, police told them he was not detained there, admitting only to detaining Ahmed Farrag Labib in relation to the theft of a mobile phone.

The day after his disappearance, Ahmed Shaaban's family received an anonymous phone call informing them that he was in detention and being tortured at Sidi Gaber police station.

On 11 November, the family went to Muharram Bek police station where they were informed that the body of Ahmed Shaaban had been found and was at the morgue.

Police reportedly told the family not to hold a funeral but to bury the body immediately. Members of the security forces are said to have accompanied the family at the burial and afterwards to have been stationed near the family's home.

Ahmed Shaaban's friend Ahmed Farrag Labib has been detained since 7 November and is reportedly being denied access to his family and lawyers.

"The Egyptian authorities must ensure that Ahmed Farrag Labib is protected against possible torture or other mistreatment, and not intimidated by those detaining him. His evidence about what occurred on 7 November is likely to be crucial to uncovering the truth," said Malcolm Smart

In a separate case, two police officers from Sidi Gaber station are currently being tried in connection with the death of Khaled Said, a young man who is alleged to have been dragged out of an internet café by plainclothes police and beaten to death in public on the sidewalk.

Alexandrian Police Torture Another Youth to Death

BBC News
Egypt police accused in new Alexandria torture case

15 November 2010

Police in Egypt have been accused of beating a teenager to death and dumping his body in a canal.

The family of Ahmed Shaaban, 19, claims he was tortured by policemen from a station in Alexandria already implicated in the death of another young man, Khaled Said.

Two officers are being tried in connection with that death.

The authorities say Mr Shaaban committed suicide but his family says his body showed clear signs of torture.

A spokesman for Egypt's interior ministry has refused a request for comment from the BBC's Arabic Service. He accused the BBC of peddling lies and propaganda in reporting the allegations.

The case has emerged two weeks before Egyptian parliamentary elections, seen as an important indicator for presidential elections in late 2011.

ALLEGED BRUTALITY

In a video posted on YouTube, Mr Shaaban's family says he was on his way home from a friend's wedding earlier this month when he was stopped at a police checkpoint. They say there was an argument when he refused to be searched, and that he was arrested and taken to a police station.

The family says they were not allowed to visit him for three days. They then received an anonymous phone call, saying that the teenager's jacket and mobile phone were found in the Mahmoudia canal.

The next morning, the morgue authorities contacted the family, asking them to identify Mr Shaaban's body. The family says that his eyes were dark blue and that his stomach and arms were "ripped open", among other alleged abuses.

A lawyer for the young man, Ahmad Qutb, has dismissed official claims that he took his own life.

"There are photos and evidence [that] confirm that he did not commit suicide," Mr Qutb said, adding that a preliminary investigation suggests that he was tortured and pushed or thrown in the lake.

"We are not accusing anyone officially right now, but we need [an] investigation to identify the criminal," he added.

The police station where the alleged torture took place, Sidi Gaber in the port city of Alexandria, is the same one that was implicated in a police torture scandal concerning Khaled Said.

Witnesses say the 28-year-old died after he was dragged out of an internet cafe and beaten up. The government says he swallowed a packet of drugs and choked.

His death has become a rallying point against police brutality for Egyptians.

***

See also:

Al-Jazeera English: Egypt police blamed for death

Alexandrian police strike again, killing teenager

Update: Shaaban’s family under severe intimidation

***

A Few Samples of Egyptian Police Brutality

McClatchy Newspapers
Examples of Egyptian complaints of police abuse

July 19, 2010

CAIRO — Since February, an independent, nonprofit torture-victims advocacy group in the Egyptian capital has kept a diary of allegations of human rights abuses under the emergency codes in Egypt. Here are some examples of entries, based solely on victims' stories and records compiled by the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and other human rights groups:

June 11: A group of police officers and plainclothes agents reportedly beat some 70 demonstrators and arrested 12 in Alexandria who were expressing anger at the killing of Khaled Said, whose beating death earlier that week sparked nationwide protests against police brutality.

June 7: A police force armed with batons and guns allegedly stormed the village of Amriya on the outskirts of Alexandria, attacking sharecroppers to remove them from the land they'd farmed for years. A high-ranking state security official had purchased the land and reportedly wanted to clear off the farmers. Police officers allegedly beat the women and threatened them with rape, and arrested many of the men.

June 6: Two plainclothes police agents in Alexandria reportedly beat Khaled Said to death. Witnesses said that the policemen tied Said's arms behind his back and roughed him up, including smashing his head against a marble slab. Said then was dragged outside and shoved into a neighboring building. His assailants continued to beat him, ramming his head against an iron gate, steps on a staircase and the walls of the building. Photos of Said's lifeless body, broken teeth and dislocated jaw were widely circulated on the Internet, stirring a wave of protests that lasted for weeks.

May 24: A police force allegedly beat and dispersed a group of workers who'd staged a strike in front of the house of Parliament in Cairo. The officers took away cameras and cell phones from journalists who were covering the sit-in.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/19/97782/examples-of-egyptian-complaints.html#ixzz0uhrsFeuR

Egypt Police Tortured 12 People to Death in 2009

AL-MASRY AL-YOUM
Egyptian police ‘tortured to death’ 12 people in 2009, says rights group

Wed, 14/07/2010

Pakinam Amer

Among widespread and continuing human rights abuses throughout Egypt in 2009, 12 people were tortured to death by police, according to the annual report of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR).

“We documented 63 cases of torture in detention in the same year. And this is not exhaustive; we include only confirmed cases where there’s clear evidence of wrongdoing,” said Hafez Abu Saada, the lawyer who heads the rights watchdog at a press conference Tuesday. “Obviously, laws are still not firm enough to put an end to this crime.”

According to the 578-page-report, 125 cases of death resulting from torture were recorded between 2000-2009, with 12 such cases recorded in 2009.

“Many of the perpetrators go unpunished mainly because of the reluctance of victims’ families to pursue their case in court, for fear of police retaliation,” states the report.

The report carries the names and case histories of all of the alleged 2009 torture cases. Not mentioned is the recent case of Khaled Saeed, an Alexandrian 28-year-old man who was allegedly beaten to death by police on a sidewalk on 6 June this year.

Abu Saada puts the blame on the nearly three-decade-long Egyptian Emergency Law which provides legal justification for perpetuating human rights abuses, which range from the detention of bloggers, collective punishment, forced displacement and election fraud, to preventing peaceful demonstrations.

In 2009 alone, police authorities put down at least 82 peaceful demonstrations or protests, says the report. This includes police intervention against the thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets in 2009 to protest a violent Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, as well as the blue-collar workers of Mahalla who in April 2009 demanded better wages.

The EOHR report also documents 530 cases of mistreatment of prisoners, 113 cases of arbitrary detention, 20 cases of “disappearances,” and ten cases of “collective punishment” (thought to be a systematic procedure used by police to extract information and/or confessions).

Other violations recorded in 2009 include the detention of prisoners in inhumane conditions, and as well as physical and sexual harrassment, and verbal humiliation of detainees. The report mentions cases of prisoners who were shackled, stripped naked and blindfolded. Some had salt forced into their eyes and were electrocuted or kicked repeatedly by officers, says the report.

Arbitrary arrest is reported as widespread and a considerate threat to personal security. According to statistics and anecdotal evidence provided by those who underwent unlawful arrests, many of the violations occurred in 6 October province, where more than 20 cases of documented arrest without a warrant were recorded.

During Muslim-Christian sectarian clashes many Egyptians were arrested to extract confessions because the police did not have a specific list of suspects based on evidence. In 2009 four cases involving forced entry into homes, the arrest of several members from the same family, attacks against personal property, and harrassment of citizens inside their homes were recorded in the provinces of North Sinai, Fayoum and Kafr el-Sheikh.

The trials of civilians before military tribunals remains a phenomenon to be concerned about, the report says. In 2009, there were three such cases, two in North Sinai, with the third being the renowned “Khairat el-Shater” trial in which around 40 prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood were charged with membership of a banned group, money laundering, and militancy.

The report also mentions cases tried at the Emergency State Security Court, referred there by direct order from the president.

The EOHR further recorded 190 cases where freedom of expression was blocked or journalists and bloggers harassed and targeted by security officials. Violations included physical assaults on reporters and bloggers, prosecution of reporters, censorship, and banning or withdrawing the publication of controversial work. The year 2009 saw in total 148 reporters stand trial on charges of libel or spreading “rumors.”

Protesting Police Brutality & State-Sponsored Yellow Journalism

Around 100 protesters congregated outside the headquarters of the state-owned Al-Gomhuria Newspaper in downtown Cairo today where they chanted slogans against the brutal murder of Alexandrian youth Khaled Said at the hands of police forces (on June 6th), and against the subsequent cover-ups and pathetic justifications for Said's murder published in this yellow newspaper's pages.



Slogans were chanted against Al-Gomhuria's blatant lies, against President/Dictator Hosni Mubarak, Minister of Interior - Habib "El Butcher" Adly, the State-Security Apparatus, the police in general, and the oppressive Emergency Law which has governed the country for the past 29 years.


Other slogans urged the journalists and editors of Al-Gomhuria to write the truth, and to refrain from acting as a mouthpiece for Mubarak's criminal state.


Hundreds of journalists and employees could be seen peeking out of open windows, while tens of others came out of the building and stood behind the police cordon which contained the protesters, and looked about curiously.


This demonstration is only one of several protests which have been conducted in Egypt since Said's murders. A number of other (larger) protests have been staged in Alexandria, Cairo, the Nile Delta, and other governorates.


Read Also:
AFP - Rights group slams Egypt for beating protesters
***

Police Assault & Arrest Over 30 Anti-Torture Protesters

Police Assault & Arrest Over 30 Protesters Demonstrating in Solidarity With Khaled Said

A demonstration involving around 300 protesters in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square was crushed and forcibly dispersed by thousands of police forces. Over 30 protesters - who had gathered in the square to protest against the torture and brutal murder of Khaled Said - were arrested.

Reports mentioned that a number of those arrested were beaten while in police custody. Police harassed and assaulted journalists, while one female protester said that she was sexually harassed by plain-clothed policemen. Those who were not arrested congregated on the stairs outside the Journalists' Syndicate where they demonstrated for the release of the 30+ protesters arrested.


Chants and slogans were directed against the Minister of Interior, Habib El "Butcher Adly, the State-Security Apparatus with its brutal torture methods, and the police in general, along with President/Dictator Hosni Mubarak. Chants called for avenging the Martyr Khaled Said.


Rows of Central Security Forces cordoned the demonstrators on the stairs of the syndicate, while police photographers and a video-cameraman documented the protests and focused on those leading the chants and slogans. Some angry youth threw empty (plastic) water bottles at these police cameramen; but other protesters told them to refrain from doing so.


In the course of about three hours all the arrested protesters were released. A number of these released protesters joined the demonstration outside the Journalists' Syndicate and chanted against the repressive Emergency Law which has governed Egypt for the past 29 years - and which facilitated the murder of Khaled Said at the hands of policemen. All protesters loudly and wholeheartedly chanted "Down with Mubarak!" and "Down with the Emergency Law!"


Further demos in solidarity with torture victims, and against the oppressive Emergency Law are to be held during the upcoming week - including a protest stand on June 26th in commemoration of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

EGYPT: Police Beating Death Sparks Nationwide Fury

The Los Angeles Times
EGYPT: Alleged police beating death sparks nationwide fury
June 14, 2010

Amro Hassan

Anger over the death of a man allegedly at the hands of two undercover police officers in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria has sparked anger across the nation and condemnation by human-rights organizations and a Facebook group dedicated to finding out what happened to Khaled Mohamed Saied.

On Sunday, security forces outside the Interior Ministry in the capital, Cairo, broke up a march by 200 protesters before allowing it to resume about 300 yards away amid tight security.

Demonstrators, carrying banners that read "Trial for Khaled Saied's murderers," were demanding an investigation into Saied's death. Protesters shouted that "Khaled was murdered" and lay the blame on Interior Minister Habib Adli.

Following his death on June 6, human-rights groups, including Amnesty International, said that Saied was arrested in an Internet cafe by two undercover policemen, who tortured and beat him to death at the entrance of a nearby building. Photos of Saied's beaten face and body spread across social-networking websites.

The Ministry of Interior issued a statement rebuffing accusations that police had a hand in the killing, adding: "The forensic report showed that Saied, who was at large following two criminal convictions, died of suffocation from an overdose of drugs he swallowed immediately before his capture."

A statement issued by the opposition movement April 6 Youth, argued that photographs of Saied after his death provided evidence that he died as a result of having been beaten and claim "he was severely beaten while he was still alive."

Speaking in an interview filmed by the El Ghad opposition party, cafe owner Hassan Mosbah said that two officers had come into his shop and dragged Saied to an adjacent house, where they beat him.

"We thought they would just interrogate him or ask him questions," Mosbah said. "But they took him as he struggled with his hands behind his back and banged his head against the marble table inside here."

Alexandrian café owner: police beat youth to death

The Associated Press
Egypt café owner describes police beating death
June 13, 2010

PAUL SCHEMM

CAIRO — The owner of an Egyptian Internet cafe said he witnessed police beating a young man to death and described the killing that has outraged rights activists.

The Interior Ministry has denied the allegations, claiming on Saturday that the 28-year-old was wanted by police and died after choking on a joint he swallowed when policemen sought to arrest him.

Activists say 28-year-old Khaled Said's death is an example of rampant abuses made possible by a three-decade-old emergency law they describe as a central tool of repression by President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

In a filmed interview posted online Sunday by a leading opposition party, cafe owner Hassan Mosbah said two police officers came into his establishment in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, dragged Khaled Said out into the street and beat him to death there. Pictures of Said's shattered face appeared on social networking sites after his death on June 6.

"We thought they would just interrogate him or ask him questions. But they took him as he struggled with his hands behind his back and banged his head against the marble table inside here," Mosbah said in an interview conducted by a journalist from the liberal opposition al-Ghad newspaper.

Mosbah said he told the police to take it outside and they hauled Said into the doorway of a nearby building. He did not emerge alive, said the cafe owner.

A fact-finding mission by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, confirmed the cafe owner's account.

"They dragged him to the adjacent building and banged his head against an iron door, the steps of the staircase and walls of the building," the Cairo-based organization said in a statement Sunday.

"Two doctors happened to be there and tried in vain to revive him but (the police) continued beating him," the statement said, adding that Said was well regarded by his friends.

The official police statement, however, said he was a known drug user and the cause of death was suffocation from "a cigarette containing drugs" lodged in Said's trachea. It also said he was wanted for convictions in absentia for theft and weapons possession, in addition to evading compulsory military service.

"The allegations reported by some circles have intentionally ignored all the facts in order to show that the human rights situation in the country has been violated," said the police statement.

Soon after his death, pictures of Said's shattered face appeared on social networking sites, outraging activists and turning into a rallying cry for Egypt's political opposition.

About 100 protesters gathered Sunday in downtown Cairo to demand the resignation of the interior minister, who controls the police force. A large number of security personnel vigorously beat back the crowds to keep them from reaching the ministry building.

Young activists held up side-by-side photos of Said, one showing him alive and the other a grisly image after his beating. "Down with Mubarak," demonstrators shouted.

Police arrested dozens.

Amnesty International and other rights groups on Friday demanded an independent investigation.

The "shocking pictures ... are a rare, firsthand glimpse of the routine use of brutal force by the Egyptian security forces, who expect to operate in a climate of impunity, with no questions asked," Amnesty said in a statement.

The victim's brother, Ahmed Said, maintained that the beating was revenge for his possession of a video showing the policemen dividing the spoils of a drug bust among themselves and so they confronted him at the cafe. He said he saw his brother's body a day after his death. His jaw was twisted, his rib cage mangled and his skull cracked, he said. Similar images were posted on bloggers' websites and he confirmed their authenticity.

Human rights groups say police torture — including sexual abuse — is routine in Egypt, but the government denies it is systematic. Reformers say the emergency law, in place since 1981, is to blame.

Cases of police brutality rarely result in punishment.

*Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report.

Egyptian Government Must Investigate Brutal Killing of Young Man

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International Urges Egypt Government to Investigate Brutal Killing of Young Man

June 12, 2010

Amnesty International is calling for an immediate, full and independent investigation into the brutal killing of a 28-year-old Egyptian man, Khaled Mohammed Said, while in the hands of Egyptian security forces in the city of Alexandria on Sunday, June 6.

Shocking pictures of Khaled Mohammed Said's body, whose face is almost unrecognizable from the beating he received, at the hands of the Egyptian police and in public according to reports, has been posted on the internet.

"The horrific photographs are shocking evidence of the abuses taking place in Egypt which are in stark contrast to the image of the country depicted today by Egyptian officials to members of the UN Human Rights Council and their reluctant recognition of some minor wrongdoings," said Amnesty International.

"These pictures are a rare, first-hand glimpse of the routine use of brutal force by the Egyptian security forces, who expect to operate in a climate of impunity, with no questions asked.

Although, the exact circumstances surrounding the killing are still being pieced together, what is known is that Khaled Mohammed Said was severely beaten by two plain-clothes police officers in an internet cafe. He was reportedly dragged out of the café and the beating continued until he died.

According to a lawyer from El-Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Khaled Mohammed Said's relatives were informed of his death, but were prevented from seeing his body immediately. The police took them to Sidi Gaber police station, where they were told that Khaled Mohammed Said had swallowed a bag of narcotics when the police had approached him, and had died from an overdose.

The family filed a complaint with the prosecutor on Monday, June 7, but was surprised to find that the police had already filed a report claiming Khaled Mohammed Said had died from a drug overdose. The prosecutor has since ordered an autopsy and the investigation is continuing. Amnesty International calls for an investigation to be carried out in line with international standards, including those within the United Nations Principles on Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions.

Under the umbrella of Egypt's 29-year-old state of emergency, abuses by the security forces are routine and rarely punished, and those responsible have only been brought to justice on a very few occasions. The state of emergency was extended for another two years earlier this month, despite repeated calls from states and international human rights groups during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for it to be lifted as soon as possible.

"The Egyptian authorities must respond immediately to this brutal beating and killing in the most robust way. If they do not take action, it will yet again send a clear signal that these abuses may continue and guarantee the perpetrators get away with it," said Amnesty International. "The Egyptian authorities must reign in their security forces. The Egyptian authorities should know that the eyes of the world are increasingly on them, and the pictures online mean that they cannot avoid conducting a thorough investigation with another whitewash."

***

Photos of Khaled Said before and after his brutal murder at the hands of Egyptian police