During the Saturday session of the Mahalla 49 trial (with 37 defendants only present), security chiefs of the town of Mahalla and the Gharbeia province were called on to testify as the prosecution witnesses. Uniformed police officers and soldiers formed a cordon around them, making it very difficult to approach them and take proper photos while they were standing in front of the Judges. Their answers were more or less typical, whenever they were asked any questions by the lawyers or Judge Muhammad Sameer: “I cannot remember. All information I have is in the police reports and the prosecution’s documents.”
Police Lt. Colonel Muhammad Fathi was the first witness. Fathi headed Mahalla’s State Security branch during the April Uprising, and now is directing the Criminal Investigations Division at Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station.
… His answers were limited to: “I can’t remember. All information I have is already in the police report and the prosecution’s documents.”
General Khaled Gharraba, of the Criminal Investigations Division at the Gharbeia Province Security Directorate, was no different.
His interrogation took few minutes, and his answers were similar to his colleague…
… and to his other colleague, Brigadier General Sami Lutfi el-Sayyed, who headed in April the Gharbeia Province General Security branch, and now directs the Damietta branch…
Then it was Brigadier General Reda Tabliya of the Criminal Investigations at the Gharbeia Province Security Directorate…
… followed by Colonel Ayman Radi Khamees, who heads the Criminal Investigations in Mahalla, and who for sure gave me the creeps. As soon as his name was shouted by the Judge, murmurs in the prisoners’ cage turned crescendo-style into shouts by the Mahalla detainees: “Ya zalem! Ya zalem! (You tyrant! You tyrant!)… May God avenge us, ya kafer (you, infidel)!” According to the prisoners, Colonel Khamees was one of the officers who personally oversaw the raids and torture of Mahalla suspects…
On Sunday, the following police officers gave their testimonies during the trial session that lasted from 12 noon to 4pm:
Lt. Colonel Amr el-Hindi (Criminal Investigations Division), Lt. Colonel Nabil Abdel Sabour (Criminal Investigations Division), Officer Muhammad Ali Saleh (Criminal Investigations Division), Lt. Colonel Hussein Fattouh Ghoneim (Criminal Investigations Division), Captain Amr Abdel Moneim Mustafa el-Harouni (Mahalla’s Counternarcotics Division), Captain Hossam Eddin Muhammad Ghareeb (Criminal Investigations Officer at Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station), Captain Haitham el-Shami (Criminal Investigations Officer at Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station), Major Khaled Ammar, (Mahalla Criminal Investigations Division Chief), Major Yasser Abdel Hamid Abdallah el-Sayyed (Criminal Investigations Division Chief at Mahalla’s 1st Police Station), First Lt. Wassim Farrag Shalaby (Mahalla’s 1st Police Station Criminal Investigations Division), Captain Saleh Kohiya (Criminal Investigations Division at Markaz el-Mahalla).
