Tag: videogate

Govt intimidates Al-Jazeera reporter

Posted on By 3arabawy

The State Security Prosecutor is interrogating an Al-Jazeera reporter on charges of “possessing material that harms national security and tarnishes the country’s image.”

Howeida Taha was doing a documentary on torture in the Arab World. She had recorded testimonies of torture victims and had videos of police brutality. Police stopped her at the airport on 8 January while leaving for Doha, and confiscated 50 videotapes, according to Al-Jazeera’s website that also said the reporter had notified previously the Interior Ministry of her project and received the required permissions.

Howeida will show up today (Sunday) morning again at the State Security Prosecutor’s office in el-Tagammu el-Khames district in Nasr City for further investigation.

On another front, yesterday’s Al-Fagr reported that Police Captain Islam Nabih is enjoying a comfortable status in “prison.” Islam, who turned out to be the son of former Security Director of Sohag Governorate Nabih Abdel Salam, is currently locked up at an officers’ detention facility attached to the Giza Security Forces camp. He spends his day, according to Al-Fagr, hanging out at the court yard in front of the officers’ bureaus, and then spends the night at his cell. He has a mobile phone, wears his own jeans and personal plainclothes, not the white prison uniform, and receives his police friends who stay up as late as 1am with him, Al-Fagr added.

In other developments, Human Rights Watch issued a statement yesterday, voicing similar concerns to those made by Amnesty International and lawyer Nasser Amin, about the risk of torture Emad Kabeer is facing in prison.

UPDATE: HR-INFO condemned the crackdown on Al-Jazeera, in a statement today.

UPDATE: Taha was released on a 10,000 Egyptian-pound ($1,754) bail.

Updates from Nasser Amin

Posted on By 3arabawy

I met Nasser Amin, Emad Kabeer‘s lawyer this afternoon.

Rights Lawyer Nasser Amin ناصر أمين المحامي

Nasser said Emad was still detained in a General Giza Court cell. The standard procedure with defendants convicted in court, said Nasser, is to transfer the prisoner on the same day or the following to the police station where the prisoner’s ID is registered; and from there he/she would be transferred to a prison. In Emad’s case this means he should have been transferred earlier to Bulaq al-Dakrour Police Station–where he was sexually abused–and from there probably he would be taken to Wadi el-Natron or Tora prison. Delaying Emad’s transfer uptil now, Nasser was guessing, could mean the government might skip the Bulaq bus stop, and just ship him directly to a prison. Nasser was more worried, though, about Emad in prison than him being in Bulaq. He said Emad has become such a high profile prisoner that the police wouldn’t dare messing with him in a police station, from where news can travel out fast. In prison, however, news trickle out much slower. “They can lock him up with dangerous criminals who also liaise with security,” Nasser told me. “Mysterious accidents” could happen.

Amnesty International shares the same concerns as Nasser. The rights watchdog issued a statement yesterday expressing concerns about Emad’s safety in prison.

Amnesty International is calling on the Egyptian authorities to ensure the safety of torture victim Emad Muhammad Ali Muhammad, known as Emad al-Kabir, and his protection from further intimidation or reprisal while in prison. This is key to ensure justice is done during the trial on 3 March 2007 of two police officers charged with torturing him, including with rape, in January last year.

Regarding the video where a woman is being whipped by a plainclothes, Nasser had initial leads that pointed to the identity of the victim who was believed to be working at the State TV & Radio building. Unfortunately, the leads turned out to be false. The identity of the victim hasn’t been revealed yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yli-bbTgnvQ

As for Lieutenant Mustafa Shehata of El-Haram Police Station, who appeared in the infamous video slapping citizen Ahmad Gad on the face, Nasser said no trial date had been set yet, but Monsieur Shehata is now suspended from work, and his trial is imminent.

Finally, Nasser expressed great admiration for the role of bloggers and Al-Fagr newspaper in exposing police brutality. But he also warned of increased police interest in the blogosphere, and expected, if not a crackdown, a state grand campaign to discredit the bloggers.

El-Adly Videogate: Torture victim receives 3 months in prison for ‘resisting authorities’!

Posted on By 3arabawy

Egyptian Justice….

Unlike what lawyer Nasser Amin was expecting yesterday, Emad Kabeer was not aquitted today. Actually, Emad was sentenced to three months in prison by a Giza criminal court.

Yes, I repeat again, Emad Kabeer, the victim of the sadist torture fiesta thrown by Bulaq al-Dakrour Police Station agents, will be locked up in prison… and why? For “resisting authorities”!!!!

Resisting authorities? Ladies and Gentlemen, Emad is indeed guilty…

He should not have been curious enough to inquire why a man in plainclothes was hitting his cousin in the street. Emad should have minded his own business, and continued driving. Inquiring about why your cousin is being brutalized falls under “resisting authorities.”

Emad is guilty because he was trying to shield his body from the punches, kicks and whips he was receiving at the Bulaq el-Dakrour Police Station… while he should have just lied down and received the hits as any good citizen would do. How dare he tries to “resist the authorities”?

Emad is guilty because he was screaming and trying to move his body away as Police Captain Islam Nabih was inserting a stick up his ass. Any good citizen would have just lied back and took it silently. How dare he tries to “resist the authorities”?

Here’s a report by journalist and friend Nadia Abou El-Magd…

Egyptian allegedly tortured by police in video sentenced to 3 months for resisting authorities
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) An Egyptian who appears to have been tortured by police in a widely circulated video was sentenced Tuesday to three months in prison for resisting authorities, his lawyer and court officials said.
In November, several Egyptian bloggers posted a video 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 Imad el-Kabir, 21, a bus driver. Human rights groups have 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.
Police said el-Kabir was detained and beaten for attempting to stop an argument between his cousin and policemen. He was released without any charges against him.
But late last month, two police officers were questioned and jailed pending an investigation into allegations they had sexually assaulted el-Kabir after the case sparked a public uproar.
Judge Samir Aboul Maati, at Giza criminal court, who ordered el-Kabir imprisoned, on Tuesday also rejected requests by the policemen to be released on bail pending their trial. Islam Nabih, a police colonel, and Reda Fathi, a noncommissioned officer, are scheduled to go on trial in March.

“I’m scared about what will now happen to Imad el-Kabir in prison,” Nasser Amin, el-Kabir’s lawyer and director for the Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession, told The Associated Press after the verdict. “I hold the Interior Ministry responsible for el-Kabir’s safety,” he added.
Amin said that el-Kabir was immediately taken to prison from the court. The lawyer added that he will appeal to the prosecutor general to suspend the sentence.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement it issued in December that el-Kabir had told them that the officers circulated the video among other microbus drivers in his neighborhood to “break his spirit” and as a warning message to other drivers about the consequences of angering police.
The video passed from mobile phone to others until it reached the Internet in early November 2006, where it sparked intense press interest and a public outcry. Al-Fagr, an independent Egyptian weekly and several privately owned satellite channels interviewed el-Kabir. He also told HRW that after the story ran, he received several calls to his mobile phone threatening him and his family if he did not remain silent.
Rights groups protested the incidents and appealed to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in their calls for an inquiry.
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.
“This is outrageous,” said blogger Wael Abbas, one of those who posted the video on his Web site. “The message is that anyone who dares reveal police torture and challenges them will be punished by prison,” he added.
Abbas and several other bloggers have posted a video of a woman confessing to murder as she is tortured, apparently at a police station. On Monday, the interior minister ordered an investigation into the new video.

I’ve just spoken a while ago with Nasser Amin, Emad’s lawyer. He said Emad is currently detained at a General Giza Court detention cell. By the time a court looks into an appeal, the March trial would have started already and Emad would have spent at least two months of his prison time…..

Nasser added Emad was steadfast, and still determined to go on with his lawsuit against Islam Nabih and Reda Fathi.

Now, here is the most beautiful part of today’s story about justice in Egypt…

According to Nasser Amin, Emad Kabeer may spend some prison time in the Bulaq el-Dakrour Police Station…