The trial of Police Captain Islam Nabih and Corporal Reda Fathi, who tortured and sexually abused driver Emad Kabeer in Bulaq el-Dakrour Police Station, was postponed today to 6 May. Emad Kabeer showed up today in court, and testified against the Bulaq police sadists.
Egyptian allegedly tortured by police testifies against officers
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ An Egyptian who was seen being tortured in a widely circulated video testified Monday against the police officers who he claims sexually abused him and used a cell phone to film the abuse.
Emad el-Kabir, 22, tearfully recounted to Judge Samir Aboul Maati and a packed courtroom of the alleged torture he was subjected to last year as the accused men _ Islam Nabih, a police colonel, and Reda Fathi, a noncommissioned officer _ stood nearby in the defendants’ cage.
El-Kabir, wearing a checkered yellow shirt and black pants, said he was kicked and beaten with shoes and a whip and hit with a gun. He said such tactics were the “the norm in any police station.”
But the bus driver broke into tears as he began talking about the alleged sexual abuse.
“They tried to stick a baton in my bottom, forcing me to shout obscenities against myself and my family,” he said. “I repeated these words, and then they threw water on me and ordered me to run like a horse, but my feet hurt so much.”
In November, several Egyptian bloggers posted a video, which also later appeared on the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube, showing a man naked from the waist down being sodomized with a stick. As he screamed in pain, those around him, whose faces are not visible, ridiculed him.
The man was later identified as el-Kabir who said the incident took place in January 2006 at a police station in Bulaq al-Dakrur, a low income neighborhood in Cairo, the Egyptian capital. He said the police video taped the incident on a cell phone, and the footage was later leaked to bloggers.
Police have said el-Kabir was detained and beaten for attempting to stop an argument between his cousin and police. At the time, he was released without any charges against him.
El-Kabir later filed a complaint with the prosecutor general, and in late December, the two police officers were arrested. Their trial started March 3.
Monday was the first time el-Kabir testified against the officers. Despite being initially released by police, he was later jailed for three months after the judge found him guilty of resisting arrest. El-Kabir was released from prison Friday.
Though el-Kabir’s trial is not the first against police officers accused of torture, it is the first in Egypt involving a video that was circulated on the Internet. Other videos of alleged police torture in Egypt have since appeared on blogs, and human Rights groups and activists believe the verdict in el-Kabir’s case could set a precedent.
During el-Kabir’s cross examination, one of Nabih’s lawyers, Said Gamil, cast doubt on the torture allegations and cell video, calling them “fabricated.”
The two accused police officers stood behind bars in the defendants’ cage wearing normal clothes, not the usual white prison jumpsuits. Two noncommissioned officers stood just in front of them inside the cage. The judge refused their lawyers’ request to free them on bail and adjourned the trial until May 6.
Outside the courtroom, el-Kabir told The Associated Press he does not have any regrets.
“I don’t feel weak that I couldn’t defend myself then, the same way they were not strong when they abused me,” he said.
“I feel God is supporting me. They filmed me to humiliate me. I never imagined that these same photos would send them to prison. It’s God’s justice,” el-Kabir added.
Rights groups say torture, including sexual abuse, is routinely used in police stations and in the interrogation of prisoners, but the government denies it is systematic. In recent years, the Ministry of Interior, which supervises detention facilities has investigated many officers on allegations of torture.
Some have been indicted, convicted and received prison sentences, but the punishments have not been harsh even in cases were the victim died because of torture. Many officers also have been pardoned before the end of their sentences.