El-Badeel reports that hundreds of citizens stormed el-Dhaher Poilce Station Friday night, following the death of Muhammad Ali Hassan, a 38-year-old coffee shop owner, in custody. The wife of the victim, Asmaa Muhammad, accused the Criminal Investigations officers of fabricating drug charges against her husband, torturing him to death, as a “favor” for some individuals.
Note a couple of things:
1- The case is yet another proof of the “privatization of torture” in Egypt.
2- Incidents like these (citizens storming police stations following deaths of detainees, or clashes in the neighborhoods triggered by police brutality) are being repeated almost routinely over the past couple of years… exactly like in the years of 1975-76, in the run up to the 1977 intifada.
