15 years prison sentence for ringleader in "thanawiya amma" case, 7 years for torturing a man to death

The verdict in the ¨Thanawyya amma¨ case in Minya vas issued today. The head of Minya's Examinations Committee,Ezzat Khalil Mansour got a 15 year prison sentence and he also loses his work.

I am in no way inclined to think that this is something that authourities should look lightly upon, but bare in mind that a case were a man was tortured to death inside the police precinct, by the very people who is supposed to uphold the law, and defend the public, rendered a seven years prison term for the policemen involved. That the case that all off us are all to familiar with, the Imad al Kabir torture case rendered three years in prison , not to speak about the sentences in al Salam Boccacio 98 case, still fresh on our minds and still staining the reputation of the judicial system.

With this in mind i can´t say that this is a fair sentence. Killing someone gives you seven years, being involved in 1000 people´s death, and you are acquitted, so forgive for thinking that 15 years seems a bit too much....

Court of Cassation dismisses officers appeal in Imad al Kabir case

The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal by officers Captain Islam Nabih and Corporal Reda Fathi, and upheld the November 5th 2007 verdict of the Giza Criminal court of three years of inprisonment for the two men on charges of illegal detention, beating and rape of Imad al Kabir at the Boulaq al Daqrour precinct on January 18 2006.

The case was seen as a landmark case in convicting police officers for torture, though the sentence was the minimum sentence in such cases,and it was made possible in part because the policemen filmed the rape, for later use in order to shame Imad al Kabir among his co-workers,little did they know that the mobile phone clip, instead of only being showed only to co-workers ended up in the public domain on the internet, and became prime evidence.

HRW Statement on Ahmed Maher

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Ahmed Maher two days ago. It urges the Egyptian authorities to investigate the case.

On May 7th, the facebook activist´s car was stopped on the street and he was pulled into a minibuss by eight-12 men in civilian clothes. He was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to the New Cairo(al Qahira al Jadida) police station were he was stripped naked, and subjugated to beatings, mostly on his back and neck.

After roughly three hours he was taken to the SSI headquarters at Lazoughli(Mabahes amn ad Dawla), were he was once again stripped to his underwear and threatend to be raped, and beaten off and on while being asked for the password, and details of group members of the April 6th facebook group.

According to Maher, the SSI officers used lotion on his body in between beatings in order to reduce bruising.

He was released before dawn the next day, May 8th, so he was held for about 12-14 hours, without being charged for anything.

Joe Stork , Deputy Director of the Middle East at the HRW views this as part of a pattern:

“This is the work of thugs, pure and simple.The government must show that those responsible for upholding the law are also subject to the law. Sadly, Maher’s treatment is part of a pattern of abuse and extralegal intimidation by state officials. Egypt needs to put an end to the lawlessness of its law-enforcement officers.”

The occurence of the incident was denied by an Egyptian security official who asked to remain anonymous according to AFP.

Unfortunately the pattern that Stork talks about is as crystal clear as the Alexandria summer sun, we have grown all too familiar with cases like Qandil, Sharqawi, ash Shaér and Imad al Kabir ower the last years, only to name but a few. unfortunately this is most likely, only the tip of the iceberg. Most cases still remain behind the sun.

UPDATE: Amira al Husseini has a roundup of the case here, with a video-clip with Ahmed showing how the upper part of his body looked like after having spent 12 hours at al Qahira al Gedida police station and SSI headquarters at Lazoughli.

Seven year prison terms for police station manslaughter

On Tuesday evening the Mansoura Criminal Court convicted three policemen, a captain and two informers of torturing a man to death, a fourth man received a lighter sentence of three years.

The incident occured on July 31st , when Nasr Ahmed Abdullah, a carpenter was taken into custody and held without charges when police was searching for his brother in the village of Telbana, 110 Km north of Cairo. He was later taken to hospital where he died. The cause of death was determined as internal bleeding close to the brain.

This is the harshest sentence in a similar case for the last ten years according to Gasser Abd al Razeq from the Human Rights watch. It´s also the second prison verdict in a torture case in three weeks time. The high publicity case of Imad al Kabir , who got sodomized at the Bulaq ad Daqrour police station in Giza, the torture was filmed on cell phone and subsequently and intentionally circulated among Imad al Kabir´s working collegues by the same police officers, who tortured him as a reminder to mind their own business and a source of blamengé for the young micro buss driver. What none of his tormentors had intended or expected was that this film would be passed on to bloggers, whom put it on their blogs and uploaded it to You Tube, among others, and then headlines in the newspapers. Suddenly the film was evidence against the police officers. The three year sentence that Imad al Kabir´s torturer´s got was the lightest possible, but justice has prevailed more than usual this November.

Human Rights Organizations claims that torture is widespread and systematic, something that the state refutes, although it admits to occasional cases were individuals make mistakes. These two sentences is hopefully the beginning of a new page in terms of taking torture cases involving police and innocent citizens seriously. I am very pessimistic though. There are ample cases to suggest that the opposite is still the norm. Just to days after the sentences in the Imad al Kabir case, came the next dead victim in the Omraniyya police station case. If the government wants to address the issue in a positive way, they could start by expanding the definition of torture in Egyptian law according to their international obligations. This would be a good sign of The Egyptian state taking their role role as a current member on the UN Human Rights Council seriously. A positive step has recently been taken by the state affiliated National Council for Human Rights, something that i salute. It would be nice if their friends in the same building could take notice of their work.

In a partially related story, the blogger who has made it one of his trademarks to create a space for these kind of videos, has got his You Tube account suspended and the videos showing torture or mistreatment at police stations removed. Wael Abbas happens to be a very good journalist, and among the most talented bloggers the Arab World has produced and it´s such a shame that You Tube does not take the opportunity to stand up for such a basic issue as torture. The BBC has a You Tube ¨channel¨, would anyone ever fathom the idea of you tube suspending the BBC, because of them showing graphic images from Abu Ghu´raib for instance?