SSI throws Fares Barakat from the 4th floor when he asks for search warrant
Hospital permits handcuffs on Barakat while in ICU
Damanhour public attorney rejects referral of Barakat to equipped hospital
On the 17th of May 2009 at 7 p.m. a state security police force in Damanhour, led by SSI officer Nagi El Gammal broke into the apartment of Ahmed Ali Hussein Eid in Damanhour – Beheira governorate while the latter was celebrating the 7th day of birth of his daughter Menna Ahmed Eid in the presence of a number of family members and friends. The police force broke into the apartment, aggressed the family and their friends and arrested them claiming to have a warrant. The search and arrest were violent and abusive.
According to witnesses and the minutes of case no. 4916/2009/administrative/Damanhour, when officers Nagi El Gammal and assistant Gamal el Taye’e were carrying out the arrest, Fares Barakat, one of the friends present, asked to see the prosecutor’s warrant for search and arrest, upon which he was pushed back by Nagi el Gammal towards the balcony. When he tried to resist he was held back by Gamal el Taye’e who was ordered by El Gammal: “To throw this man from the balcony”. Barakat fell from the 4th floor, was badly injured and lost consciousness.
Bystanders called the ambulance which transferred Barakat, accompanied by his brother and wife, to the national medical institute in Damanhour. At the hospital he was admitted into ICU on the second floor at 8 p.m. where he was examined and x-rayed. Investigations revealed that Barakat was suffering the following:
Fracture of the right leg, hip and shoulder, three pelvic fractures, fracture nose, facial injuries, fracture of three vertebrae, blood accumulation in the stomach and around the liver, post concussion syndrome and difficulty breathing to upward pressure of abdominal blood collections.
On the 19th of May 2009 Barakat’s lawyers submitted a request to the public attorney in Beheira requesting an investigation in the violence by Nagi El Gammal and Gamal El Taye’e against Barakat. However the public attorney Magdi El Ghannam himself signed a rejection of the request, claiming that the investigation lies within the judicial authority of Damanhour. Later on the same day Barakat’s family submitted a similar request to the public attorney, which was equally rejected.
Once again: medicine in service of SSI
At 5.30 at the National Medical Institute in Damanhour chief intelligence officers Mohamed Ammar and Abdel Aziz El Tanikhi accompanied by a police force circled the ICU, preventing doctors and family from entering claiming that the prosecution has ordered the detention of Barakat. Ammar then insisted to question Barakat and when the family protested they were threatened to be forcefully thrown out of the hospital. An hour and a half later Ammar left the ICU carrying several sheets of paper signed by Barakat depicting a different story from what had happened. Again the lawyers filed a complaint against Ammar for breaking into the ICU and questioning Barakat in his deteriorating condition.
Since the detention of Barakat his lawyers have submitted several requests to have him to transferred to a private hospital since the one he is in lacks the necessary medical facilities. Specifically they requested that he be transferred to Mostafa Kamel hospital in Alexandria to operate on internal fixation of his pelvic fractures. Again the public attorney of Beheira rejected their request and insisted to summon forensic medicine to confirm his need for such procedure. In the meantime Barakat’s condition is worsening and he continues to be kept in ICU under strict police surveillance and handcuffed to his bed for fear he might escape!!
Two independent members of parliament have submitted a demand for urgent questioning of the minister of interior in both the Defense and National Security and the Human Rights committees in parliament.