Tag: courts

Al-Jazeera journalist sentenced over torture documentary

Posted on By 3arabawy

Mubarak’s regime cracks down again on those who speak out against torture:

An al Jazeera journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison in absentia by an Egyptian court after producing a film highlighting police torture.
The state security criminal court found Howayda Taha guilty of “harming Egypt’s national interest” and ordered her on Wednesday to pay a fine of 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,200).
She had been accused of planning to broadcast fabricated images.
Taha, who was making a documentary on torture in Egyptian police stations, described the decision as “an unjust, vindictive ruling by the government’s judiciary”.
She can appeal against the verdict.
In January, she was briefly arrested and her 50 videotapes confiscated at the Cairo airport.
Taha, an Egyptian citizen, is currently in Qatar, where al Jazeera’s headquarters are situated.

Victims imprisoned and tormentors released

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received the following statement from the Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence:

Victims Imprisoned and Tormentors Released
El-Nadim Center expresses its regret regarding the court sentence released by the Alexandria East Court, where three victims of police torture and violence were sentenced while torturers were released.
On the 16th of April 2007 the Alexandria East Court has ruled in the case no. 47678/2006 acquitting El Arabi Saleh Muhammad and Goma’a Abdel Moncef Ibrahim, both sergeants at the Baba Shark police station, accused of using violence, while sentencing victims Muhammad Abdel Aziz Abdel Fattah, Abdel Razik Abdel Aziz Abdel Fattah and Ahmad Ali Abdo, accused of resisting authorities, each to three months imprisonment and 100 LE fine.
The story dates back to the 15th of August 2005 when Goma’a and El Arabi stopped citizen Abdel Razik and beat him up in the middle of the street in El Hadra El Gadida. El Arabi shot three bullets, one of which hit Muhammad in his arm. Both sergeants then took Abdel Razik to the police station leaving Muhammad bleeding until he was found my his friend Ahmad Ali Abdo, who happened to be passing by. He carried him to the prosecution to document the case and have him referred to hospital. The prosecutor ordered Muhammad’s transfer to the hospital, which the then present police officer offered to do. But instead of taking him to hospital the officer drove both, the wounded Muhammad and his friend to the police station where, instead of treatment, they were subject to torture to force them to withdraw their complaint. Ahmad, in addition, was taken to the state security headquarters where he was subject to torture again.
Although the forensic report proved the injuries afflicted on Muhammad Abdel Aziz, Abdel Razik Abdel Aziz and Ahmad Ali, which included evidence of the gun shot that hit Muhammad in his arm. The forensic report also documented minor bruises on each of sergeants El Arabi Saleh and Goma’a Abdel Moncef, which the report explained as possible consequences of the victims’ attempt to defend themselves. The prosecution excluded the possibility of attempted murder and sent the case to court accusing all parties concerned. The court’s ruling included a prison sentence of three months to each of the three victims, a 200 LE bail and 501 LE temporary compensation to each of them.
El-Nadim Center expresses its concern that courts, which victims reach with great difficulty, are no longer a resort for those seeking justice, but rather an additional source of punishment for those who dare complain about their torture by the police. At best the courts tend to acquit victims and tormentors. At worst, as in this case, they punish victims and release the torturers.
El-Nadim Center
Cairo, 20 April 2007

Bulaq Police torturers trial postponed to 6 May

Posted on By 3arabawy

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.