Finally a trial after two years of torture and harassment
UPDATE: The case has been adjourned until Dec 28 after Shady’s lawyers requested that the civil claim be announced and the police station’s log book be made available to them.
El Nadeem Centre invites all who are interested in combatting torture, individuals involved in Human Rights or media institutions to join in solidarity with Shady Maged Sa’ad Zaghloul and his wife. He was arrested and tortured in 6th October City Police Station two. After having made a complaint to the prosecutor’s office and showing his injuries and being examined by a forensic doctor he was further subjected to torture in the Police Station and was injured again. He was examined once more by the forensic doctor after the failure of the Police from carrying out the orders of the Prosecutor’s office. The Police Officers tried to pressure him in to withdrawing his complaint using different methods, the last of which was his and his wife and baby daughter’s abduction from in front of the prosecutor’s office. They were taken to the Police Station and detained for three days until Shady was forced to withdraw his complaint with the Prosecutor’s office.
Shady returned to the Prosecutor’s office to prove that his withdrawal occurred under pressure and this pushed the prosecution to try the three police officers Sherif Samir Ahmed Metwally, Hazem Beltagy Ibrahim and Ahmed Samir Sha’ban on the charge of the use of cruelty and detention without cause.
The first session of this trial is on Monday 7 December 2009 in 6 October City Misdemeanor Court.
Background
Shady Maged Sa’ad Zaghloul is an Egyptian man, who is married with a baby, he has worked from a young age and he is currently in his third year of law school in Cairo University. Shady lived in 6 October City with his family but was forced to move after being subjected to insult, torture and harassment at the hands of Police Officers in 6 October City Police Station 2. Their names are Sherif Samir, Hazem Beltagy and Sami Sha’ban.
Shady recalls:
On 14 October 2007 I was stopped (by Sherif Amin and other Police Officers) in the Vodafone Square, they saw my ID and both licenses and asked me to go with them. I refused to go because there was no reason to, so they hit me on the street in front of everyone. They slapped me and kicked me and carried me to the police van. I was presented to the prosecutor and they falsely accused me of dealing drugs and of having 4 grams of hashish and 10 LE as evidence of trade in drugs. The prosecutor asked me about the bruises on my face and I told him that they hit me, he made another case file in which I am the victim and made arrangements for me to be examined by the forensic doctor. Under the other case he ordered me to be detained for 4 days. I was examined by the forensic doctor on 17 October 2007 and was taken back to the Police Station to be held over for trial for 15 days.
They hit me daily for ten days… Every night they would take me from the detention area to the investigative services room and beat me until I lost consciousness, they would then take me back down to the detention area, where the other detainees would wake me up…. and then Police Officers would take me back…. They hit me with truncheons and hoses and electric wire covers on my back and my legs while I was hung up…. my hands were tied together below my knees and in between them there was a long stick…. Each side of the stick was on a bed… they wanted me to withdraw my complaint about them hitting me and to confess to the trumped up charge. They tried to treat me medically because they started to worry that something would happen to me…. I refused treatment, but they got a document from the hospital stating that I fell in the bathroom and I have bruises on my legs and back because of that.
When I went to the prosecutor’s office I refuted the story of me falling in the bathroom and I told them the truth: that the three police officers- and other policemen whose names I do not know- were the ones who hit me and I asked to be examined by a forensic doctor again… I was examined on 28 October 2007… while I was there they charged me with a robbery. On the day of the hearing on 17 October 2007, they did not send me to court and I was classified as a “fugitive”. I was released on 31 October 2007. When I got out, I moved because I am scared of their threats and I need to earn a living.
On 10 March 2008 I went to the prosecutor’s office to complain about threats I was receiving via text message on my mobile phone, I brought my wife and daughter with me because I worry about leaving them alone ( the girl was only a few months old). The prosecutor registered my complaint and the messages and the phone numbers of the phones that sent the messages in order to find out who they belong to. As I was leaving I was taken a long with my wife and daughter. They took us to the police station and put us in the Investigative services room for four days but this time they did not hit me… but there were threats and pressure for me to withdraw the complaint and due to fear for my wife and daughter’s safety I agreed to do it. I went with an informant to the civil registrar where they made me give power of attorney to a lawyer from their camp… I then went back to the Police Station to pick up my wife and daughter. On 5 April 2008 I went back to the prosecutor’s office to state that I withdrew my complaint under duress.