An administrative court has turned down a lawsuit filed by activists against Interior Minister Habib el-Adly protesting the return of the Bulaq rapists Islam Nabih and Reda Fathi to the force, after they served a reduced prison sentence, for the torture and sexual abuse of driver Emad Kabeer.

Despite the Interior Ministry’s denial, it seems after all that police rapist and mentally unstable sadist Islam Nabih will be reinstated, and assigned to the Assiut Security Directorate.

Political activists in the Upper Egyptian province have already started mobilizing against the Interior Ministry’s move.

And, instead of discharging him from the police force he’s been reinstated! The Interior Ministry is assigning him to the Assiut Security Directorate!

If an officer beats a detainee to death, he’s also given three years in prison.

Police torturer Islam Nabih’s appeal of his sentence refused by appeals court.

— أبو كار (@Sarahcarr) May 21, 2008

I’m posting a part of the message I received from a blogger in Cairo, who has family friends with the Bulaq el-Dakrour Police Sadist Islam Nabih…

It appears that through his father’s connections with wazir al-dakhliya (the Interior Minister), Islam is actually in a mu3askar (camp), somewhere along taree2 masr iskindirya (Cairo – Alexandria desert road) and his punishment is not being able to leave its premises. and it seems that since he’s served a year and a half (jail time), that he will be ‘released’ during the next major holiday – probably el eid el-sughayar (Eid el-Fitr). His father has also appealed and there’s a chance that Islam will come out innocent, and because aslan (in the first place) he hasn’t been put in a real jail, he’s going to be able to go back to his police job 3ady (normally).

Can some journalist in Cairo follow up on this?

Also, the Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence issued a report on torture case in Imbaba.

Fellow bloggers and anti-torture activists are urged to show up in court in solidarity with Emad.

There is a sense of joy in the blogosphere which broke the scandal as well as the independent press that carried on with the investigation.

One things we need to remember here, though: Our “War on Torture” is by no means over. These three-year prison sentences may be the “harshest” verdict produced by Videogate-related trial, but make no mistake, Islam and Reda, the two sadist animals, will receive a five-star treatment in jail like other police officers and influential figures receive when they get locked up. And that’s if they serve the whole sentence. The regime cronies for sure will also use the trial to claim they are “serious” in their commitment to “human rights.” But more importantly, HOW MANY OTHER ISLAM NABIHS ARE THERE in Mubarak’s Interior Ministry? AND HOW MANY EMAD KABEERS RIGHT NOW INSIDE THE POLICE STATIONS OF OUR COUNTRY’S 26 PROVINCES? Was Bulaq’s torture fiesta an “individual behavior” as the government mouthpieces claim whenever torture stories emerge? Of course not. Torture in Mubarak’s Egypt is a systematic practice by his security agencies, whether it’s State Security or the ordinary police. Has the Bulaq el-Dakrour Police Station’s “refrigerator” been closed down, or is still operating? [In case you don’t know, the Tallaga “Refrigerator” is what the police calls the room, which exists in virtually ever single police station, where interrogation of suspects occurs under torture. The walls of the room would be decorated by tools of torture, usually locally produced or personally improvised by Mubarak’s sick officers and corporals. Emad was sexually abused and whipped in Bulaq’s “refrigerator.”] The abuse and humiliation induced by the Egyptian police on the citizens are daily, and will continue as long as the current regime continues. The writings of retired Brigadier General Mahmoud Qutri, a self-described liberal, provides a great insight into how those monsters are created and shaped from the time they enroll in the police academy, till they join the force.

Putting away an officer or two behind bars means nothing, and don’t get fooled by those who tell you that other officers will take that as a warning not to torture. The only “warning” those officers will receive is to actually be more careful next time and refrain from filming the abuse. Even little kids in Egypt, who also fell on occasions victims to to Mubarak’s police monstrosity, understand well what it means to be “mabaheth” (investigations police).

Does that mean we stay at home and wait for change of regime to happen to see torture abolished? Hell No! We have to continue our anti-torture campaign in even more aggressive way… and the tactics are the same: “Naming and Shaming”. If we see abuse, we’ll photograph it. If we see a torturer, we’ll scandalize him among the public and the world.. We will continue to gather and document evidence about torturers, and collect the testimonies from victims and witnesses. BUT we will be doing that, without forgetting the bigger picture: as long as the current regime (and that includes any “smooth transition” expected to Jimmi or any of the other gangsters) exists, torturers will be enjoying a safe haven–one, whose scientists of pain have scored international reputation worthy of their brutality among their filthy colleagues in other security services around the world, turning Egypt into a part of the US-run global gulag.

I judge the success of the anti-torture campaign (or its failure) by observing generally how many people join the activist community, politicized by what they saw and read… and from there they develop a much sharper vision of the roots of the problem and how is this interrelated to other social, political and economic problems we have in our country, which I’m blaming in full those ruling jackboots for such a catastrophic era in the history of modern Egypt.

To make torture disappear. Mubarak’s regime has to be overthrown. And I see no other alternative but a general strike. If we stop the machine, it’s Game Over. Mahalla, Kafr el-Dawar, Helwan, Suez, Mansoura are the way forward. If anti-torture activists want to see this practice disappears, then they may want to start paying a bit more attention to and coordinate with the social force which, as we’ve seen repeatedly, when moves en masse, is unstoppable, to overthrow this system run by the dictator Mubarak.

The trial of Police Captain Islam Nabih and Corporal Reda Fathi–the Bulaq el-Dakrour Police Station sadists who tortured, sodomized driver Emad Kabeer and filmed the abuse to further the humiliation–is expected to come to its final chapter, with a verdict to be issued this Monday, 5 November, at Dar el-Qadaa el-Aaly, 9am.