Public attorney refuses to send Bahaa Saber for forensic medical examination

UPDATE: Bahaa was released on Thursday April 15 after paying 5000 EGPs bail.

The public attorney for North Cairo refused to refer Bahaa Saber for forensic examination without giving plausible reasons. The obvious reason is the wish of the prosecution to wait until Bahaa’s injuries are healed to cover up for the torture he suffered by the hands of intelligence officers of both el Azbakeyya and Boulaq Abu El Ela police stations. Another story of the usual complicity between the prosecution and the police.

Bahaa Saber was one of the participants in the demonstration organized by Kefaya movement yesterday, Tuesday 13th of April in front of the office of the public prosecutor at the High Court protesting the extreme police violence against the 6thof April youth movement during their demonstration in front of the Shura Council on the 6thof April demanding a lifting of the emergency state and democratic constitutional amendments. Yesterday’s demonstration was met with similar police violence which resulted in the injury of several while others fell as a result of the attempt by central security forces to confine them to the smallest area possible using iron separators used by the traffic police.

When Bahaa joined the demonstration from outside the police cordon he was surrounded by a number of men, both in uniform and plain clothes who dragged him along the street, beat him up, stripped him of his clothes down to his underwear and finally took him in a cab where the beating continued and where he was blindfolded and handcuffed. Bahaa realized that with him in the cab were intelligence officers of the Boulaq Abu El Ela and Azbakeyya police stations. Arriving at Boulaq police station he was totally stripped of his clothes, sexually harassed ad beaten while his arms were constantly being pulled up causing severe pain and possible injury to his nerve plexus. All the while Bahaa was kept face down on the floor and subjected in addition to all of the above to verbal obscenities and humiliation. At around 8 p.m., i.e. about 5 hours after his arrest, his blindfold was removed and the intelligence officer of Boulaq told him: So that you can see me, show me what you will do! Bahaa says that all the time he heard the clicking of pictures being taken of him.

After this torture marathon, Bahaa was allowed to shower and he was given clothes to wear and was transferred to Azbakeyya prosecution. Upon the request of his lawyers Sayed Fathi (El Helali Foundation for Liberties) and Malek Adly (Hisham Mubarak Law Center) a doctor from El Nadim Center went to see him at around 1 a.m. to find him badly injured: his face was bruised, swollen with a cut wound in the upper part of the left cheek. His arms and back showed several bruises and contusions. He could not move one of the fingers of his left hand. The doctor recommended that Bahaa be immediately referred to hospital for x-rays of his head, chest and hand as well as for fundus examination. She also explained that he is in need of antibiotics to prevent secondary infection of the cut wound and the facial hematoma.

About an hour later Bahaa was transferred to the Egyptian Red Crescent Hospital surrounded by more than a dozen guards. His lawyers were not allowed to accompany him. This morning the prosecution listened to the statement of the head of police at Azbakeyya police station. His lawyers requested his examination by forensic medicine but the public attorney refused. His detention was extended for 4 days.

As for the statement made by the head of police, it tells an imaginary story contested by several testimonies of bystanders as well as the pictures in the attached file.

“We received information that anti-regime elements are planning to gather in front of the court house “so we undertook the coordination of security services in front of the court house to ensure the safety of the demonstrators. We headed towards the court house. The demonstrators began to gather and chant. We suddenly found an individual stand on top of the fence opposite the court house, completely take off his clothes and shout and scream slogans that are abusive of the government, the national Democratic Party and the police. We advised and counseled him but he did not stop. He crossed the street, stretched out on the asphalt and blocked the traffic. Again we advised and counseled him. But he continued. So we had to use the necessary force to control him. When we arrested him we found that his face was swollen and had bruises and contusions indifferent parts of his body as a result of sleeping on the asphalt.”