I received the following statement from the Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence:
Police brutality does not exclude military officers
Until when shall we continue to complain of police violations to no avail?
Until when shall we continue to condemn and protest police practices that have gone beyond any control?
Until when will victims of police torture continue to live deprived of their dignity in the absence of any official measure to grant them justice, reclaim their violated pride or punish those who violated them?
This is a new story in the series of police violations who seem never to take a break in their ongoing mission of torturing Egyptian citizens. The “hero” this time is intelligence assistant at Ismailia police station, officer Ahmad Hassan, his friends and his assistants.
The victim this time is citizen Adel El Sha’er, retired military officer, who was subject to an orgy of torture both at his home and at the Ismailia police station.
Mr. El Sha’er wrote his complaint and sent it to the President, who is also the High military commander, the minister of defense, the association of war veterans, the minister of justice, the minister of interior and the ministry of interior inspection directorate. Still the assaulting officer is in his office and the violations continue.
Mr. El Sha’er’s complaint includes the following:
“On the 28th of December 2006 the landlord of the building in which I live had an argument with me, in an attempt to make me leave my flat which I had rented since 1991. I called the police who came and started filing my complaint. In the meantime officer Ahmad Hassan, intelligence assistant at Ismailia police station arrived with four people, all in plain clothes. I asked who those people were and the answer was a wave of verbal abuse followed by beatings by the officer himself. He then ordered his informers to carry me from all four limbs. They stripped me of my clothes in front of my wife and daughters. When my wife intervened to tell them that I was a respectable person and a former military officer and that it was inappropriate to treat me in that way, she was met with a similar wave of verbal abuse. They carried me in this way to a police truck where the beating continued. Then to the police station. They put me in a room. The officer walked in and ordered his assistants to handcuff my hands behind my back. The verbal abuse continued accompanied with slapping until my face bled and I lost consciousness. They then carried me to a room called the “fridge”. I was naked and handcuffed and remained like that until I was summoned to the evening prosecution. The prosecution documented the apparent injuries and the prosecutor ordered my medical examination.”
The ENT department at the Ismailia general hospital confirmed the presence of “hemorrhagic effusion behind the left ear with reduced hearing ability recommending surgery”.
Despite the medical report and the confirmation of torture, yet officer Ahmad Hassan continues to carry out his job in the same place using the same “methodology”. In addition harassment of Mr. El Sha’er began to force him to withdraw his complaint.
Until when?
Cairo 8 May 2007