Egypt’s constitution is probably the “worst in the world and cannot be amended, but should be scrapped and re-written,” a group of distinguished legal experts told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Category: Blog
Mustafa Shehata to face administrative investigation
Police Lieutenant Mustafa Shehata who appeared in the notorious “slaps” video will be referred to an “administrative punitive board within the Giza Security Directorate,” reported Al-Masry Al-Youm. This means basically Shehata will sit in front of a bunch of fellow police officers to be judged for showering detainee Ahmad Gad with slaps (and who knows what else happened without being recorded).
The charges leveled against Shehata include employing “brute force” against a citizen in custody. Egyptian law does not recognize “torture” except if the abuse fiesta’s purpose was “extracting information.” The same goes for Police Captain Islam Nabih and Corporal Reda Fathi, who sexually abused driver Emad Kabeer in Bulaq al-Dakrour Police Station. They will face charges of “employing brute force” against a citizen, and not “torture.” Why? Because they inserted a stick up Emad’s ass for the sake of fun, and not for “extracting information.”
Al-Masry Al-Youm also reported that Shehata identified the detainee in the video clip, but accused him of being a child molester, and denied abusing him in anyway.
Govt intimidates Al-Jazeera reporter
The State Security Prosecutor is interrogating an Al-Jazeera reporter on charges of “possessing material that harms national security and tarnishes the country’s image.”
Howeida Taha was doing a documentary on torture in the Arab World. She had recorded testimonies of torture victims and had videos of police brutality. Police stopped her at the airport on 8 January while leaving for Doha, and confiscated 50 videotapes, according to Al-Jazeera’s website that also said the reporter had notified previously the Interior Ministry of her project and received the required permissions.
Howeida will show up today (Sunday) morning again at the State Security Prosecutor’s office in el-Tagammu el-Khames district in Nasr City for further investigation.
On another front, yesterday’s Al-Fagr reported that Police Captain Islam Nabih is enjoying a comfortable status in “prison.” Islam, who turned out to be the son of former Security Director of Sohag Governorate Nabih Abdel Salam, is currently locked up at an officers’ detention facility attached to the Giza Security Forces camp. He spends his day, according to Al-Fagr, hanging out at the court yard in front of the officers’ bureaus, and then spends the night at his cell. He has a mobile phone, wears his own jeans and personal plainclothes, not the white prison uniform, and receives his police friends who stay up as late as 1am with him, Al-Fagr added.
In other developments, Human Rights Watch issued a statement yesterday, voicing similar concerns to those made by Amnesty International and lawyer Nasser Amin, about the risk of torture Emad Kabeer is facing in prison.
UPDATE: HR-INFO condemned the crackdown on Al-Jazeera, in a statement today.
UPDATE: Taha was released on a 10,000 Egyptian-pound ($1,754) bail.