Tag: torture

Police brutality does not exclude military officers

Posted on By 3arabawy

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

State Security torture 8 Assiut student activists

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Ikhwan Web:

The Egyptian State Security Police forces detained on Friday, May, 4, 2007, eight Muslim Brotherhood students from Al-Azhar University, while they were going to the mosque to perform Friday Prayer; later, another group of students were arrested from their dorm. All the detained students were taken to the Assiut State Security Service headquarters; a State Security Police officer, Ashraf Abul Makarem, tortured the students using electric shocks, and ordered them to take off their clothes and bead them on their naked bodied while showering them with a flurry of insults and treated them inhumanely.
They appeared after that before Assiut prosecution on Saturday evening, May, 5, 2007, after remaining under custody and torture of the State Security Police for thirty six hours.

Cement workers stage sit-in south of Cairo

Posted on By 3arabawy

More than 500 workers at el-Qawmiya Cement Company in Helwan staged a sit-in Sunday morning, in front of the office building of the CEO Nabil el-Gabri, demanding their full annual bonuses.

The workers were entitled to a total profit share of LE30 millions (roughly 10% of the LE306 million profits made by the company the previous year). In addition to the cash sums, part of this money should be allocated to the housing and social services. The management only paid LE13 millions, triggering industrial action from the workers today. The Factory Union Committee apparently lobbied for only another LE7 millions, which was refused by the workers, who demanded the full remaining LE13 millions.

The director of the Helwan State Security Bureau Officer Ashraf Shura showed up at the factory in person, and negotiated with the workers. The sit-in was disbanded around 5pm, after Shura promised the workers their demands will be met. The workers also chanted against their Factory Union Committee officials, calling for their impeachment.

[Above: An undated photo of the director of Helwan’s State Security bureau Officer Ashraf Shura, seen above in brown plainclothes. He was involved in torturing labor writer Mostafa Bassiouny, by beatings and electric shocks in 1999. Photo courtesy of Egyptian blogger Ahmad Abdel Fattah.]