Kefaya to SS Captain Ashraf Safwat: You tortured a citizen to death, and we can prove it

Kefaya called for the prosecution of State Security Captain Ashraf Safwat, who tortured to death citizen Muhammad Abdel Qader in Hadayek el-Qobba Police Station. The movement managed to obtain copies of the Coroner’s report, with horrible autopsy photographs of the victim’s body that bears marks of burns and bruises clearly proving Muhammad died from torture.

The photos of the autopsy report are here. I should warn you they are really sickening, but they have to be published so that the criminals will not escape justice.

On 16 September 2003, State Security Captain Ashraf Mustafa Hussein Safwat summoned two brothers Muhammad Abdel Kader el-Sayyed, 31, and his 27-year-old brother Sameh for interrogation in Hadayek el-Qobba Police Station, based on an illegal detention order. After a five-day torture odyssey on the hands of Captain Ashraf, citizen Muhammad died, while his brother Sameh has remained in detention since then.

The family of the victim refused to receive his body, and sought legal help from Association for Human Rights Legal Aid (AHRLA), whose lawyers notified the Prosecutor of the incident. The forensic report, after examining the body of Muhammad Abdel Qader, proved that he was subject to injuries that involved “red bruises and hematomas (blood collections) in the lower lip, left nipple, right wrist, right forearm, chest, left arm, left thigh and left leg (..) in addition to severe hemorrhagic injuries in the head and abdomen which are contusive injuries resulting from collision with solid body or bodies. These are recent injuries that coincide with the date of death.”

The forensic report also confirmed the presence of “congestion and evidence of use of high temperature to the right and left breast and the penis resembling the effect of electrocution with an electric wire. He was subject to those injuries hours before this death.”

While working on the case, the AHRLA lawyers faced great difficulties that included denying them access to the complete file of the case—in violation of criminal law. The Interior Ministry refused to comply with the prosecutor’s orders to arrest and summon the accused officer, Ashraf Hussein. Finally on 4 November 2006, the victim’s family surprised the lawyers by dropping the case in court and cancelling their power of attorney, after they were blackmailed by the security: We will release your living son, if you give up the rights of the deceased one, the police told the family.

The executioner is about to escape justice once more, so that he can torture and kill more Egyptian citizens inside the morgues and torture chambers of State Security Police. It is further evidence to how Mubarak’s regime nourishes torture systematically, and covers up for the criminals engaged in it.

The torture victim, citizen Muhammad Abdel Qader had rights. His three daughters also have rights. Their last chance of achieving justice could be on the 3rd of February, where the Hadayek el-Qobba Prosecution Office for Family Affairs (in charge of financial custody over Muhammad’s minor daughters) will reopen the investigation into the case once again.

Kefaya obtained previously unpublished copies of the Forensic Medical Authorities autopsy report that prove citizen Muhammad Abdel Qader died because of the torture he received on the hands of State Security Captain Ashraf Mustafa Hussein Safwat. As we publish them today, we call on all civil society organizations to extend their solidarity to the victim’s family, and show up on 3 February, 2007 in court.