Egypt new torture case revealed
2007-02-01 08:23
Cairo - Egypt's politically active blogger community has brought to light another torture case against the regime's security services amid a rising tide of outrage over police brutality.
On Saturday, lawyers from the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid (AHRLA) would go to court in a last-ditch effort to keep alive the case against a state security officer accused of torturing to death a man he arrested three and a half years ago.
The case against captain Ashraf Safwat was gaining new attention after the decision by Egypt's activist blogger community to post the details online in the wake of several other cases of police brutality in recent weeks.
Mohsen Bahnasi, a member of AHRLA's board, said: "The most significant aspect of the case is this is the first state security officer to truly be put in front of a criminal court."
Qader dies of torture
Mohammed Abdel Qader and his brother were summoned to a Cairo police station on September 16 2003 by Safwat. Abdel Qader died five days later and an autopsy gave torture by electric shock combined with a weak heart as the cause of death.
More than three years later, the case continued to drag on, hampered by slow prosecutors, uncooperative security services and now the family's decision to drop the case and disappear.
However, in the past few months, torture cases had gained new prominence in Egypt as bloggers had posted videos, photos and accounts of brutality in police stations, prompting renewed investigations.
On January 20, Qader's case appeared on a blog, featuring excerpts from the forensic report and gruesome autopsy pictures showing the mangled corpse of a heavily bearded man.
Effects of electrocution
An excerpt read: "There is evidence of the application of high temperature to the right and left breast and the penis resembling the effects of electrocution with an electric wire. He was subject to those injuries hours before his death."
Aida Seif al-Dawla, a veteran anti-torture activist, said: "The pictures have done something, because they are visual - it is a shock."
Hossam el-Hamalawy, on whose Arabawy blog the pictures appeared, said it came as no surprise that bloggers should take interest in such cases.
He said: "The bloggers themselves were victims of torture during the past years." He was referring to the case of Mohammed al-Sharqawi, who was allegedly sodomised after being arrested. El-Hamalawy said: "We are receiving so many videos now."