Two months for torturing suspects

Yet another case of policemen tried for torturing suspects in 2011 , this time with the twist of two policemen actually getting a sentence.

So what was the case about:

Investigations had revealed that the two policemen arrested two bearded brothers at an airport in February 2011 and tortured them at Almaza Prison to force them to confess that they belong to terrorist organizations.

And what about the sentence for doing this to the two innocent brothers one might ask? Two months with hard labour with the option of paying L.E. 500 (amounts to 725 USD) bail for a suspended sentence. On top of that , it´s most likely they will also keep their work as policemen.

For sake of not being too onesided in dealing with this story, the tortured brothers will get compensated:

The court also ordered the defendants to pay 10,000 pounds (1,450 US Dollars) as a temporary compensation to the alleged victims.

For as long as anyone can remember the culture of impunity towards the endemic human rights violations taking place in police stations , prisons and security camps , this was the case during the Mubarak years and the case of Khaled Said , whom was tortured to death by policemen in Ibrahimiyya, Alexandria in June 2010 was one key trigger of the January 25th revolution 2011 , Jan 25th being police day in Egypt.

The years since the Jan 25 revolution in 2011 has not changed that in any way. The lack of reform within the police is one of the most frustrating and disapointing aspects of the last 30 months.

For more on torture in Egypt since 2005 , including the case of Emad al Kebir. read here.

Fares Barakat thrown from 4th floor when asking for search warrant

At 7 P.M on May 17th, SSI officer Nagi al Gammal and asssistent Gamal el Taye'e was conducting an arrest on Ahmed Ali Hussin Eid in his apartment in Damanhour, Beheira, while the family was celebrating a birthday party for their daughter, together with friends.

One of the friends present, Fares Barakat asked for the search warrant, when he was pushed towards the balcony by SSI officer Nagi al Gammal, when resisting the assistent Gamal el Taye´e held him , and the officer ordered el Tayeé to "To throw this man from the balcony".

Fares Barakat fell from the fourth floor,unconscious and with these injuries:

Fracture of the right leg, hip and shoulder, three pelvic fractures, fracture nose, facial injuries, fracture of three vertebrae, blood accumulation in the stomach and around the liver, post concussion syndrome and difficulty breathing to upward pressure of abdominal blood collections.

In the photos , Fares Barakat is handcuffed while at the intensive care unit, reminding us of photos of hospitalized kids, in the wake of Mahalla al Kubra. He´s being treated like a criminal , while his requests for an investigation has been rejected by the Attorney General in Beheira. Unfortunately this is not the first time something like this occurs.

Sorry for the sloppy writing, but at times, the story is much more important , than the language.

In other news, blogger Diaá eddin Gad has been harassed by the State Security phoning him on numerous occasions , asking him to come see them, ¨for his own good¨

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.

Fleishman on Wael Abbas

A good piece on the most important and influential Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas by Jeffrey Fleishman in L.A Times. Wael is of course the blogger who started to upload mobile phone video clips of torture and mistreatment of regular citizens in police stations on his blog, among other things. Clips that proved too graphic and disturbing for youtube.. Clips that have been important, as evidence in trials against police officers, as well as opening up a space for the traditional media to address issues that have been taboo prior to this.

The best blog is in my view, still Baheyya (no big secret that i´m revealing to old readers). Some might have a crush on Obama, i have a crush on Baheyya!

Sorry for not being able to blog lately, i´ve been really busy, but blogging with somewhat more regularity will return shortly. I hope to be able to post about the wonder in Kumasi(and hopefully in Accra tmrw), Rafah and Gaza and ID´s for reverts and Bahai´s soon.

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?