Diaries of Torture – June 2010

1 June 2010

1. Blogger Amr Salama, author of the blog “Lessa Aish,” was arrested because of his coverage of electoral developments.  His last posts to Facebook before his arrest were the following: “After the National Democratic Party canceled elections in Sharqeya’s Haheya district, in blatant disregard of court orders, I went to the Abu Kabir and Faqous districts – the most contested in Sharqeya.  I took photographs from inside polling staff headquarters, where they sat eating kofta and kebab and forging votes on election ballots for the NDP candidates in Abu Kabir.  Freedom for Amr Salama” (from Facebook).
2. From a letter: “Dear Residents of al-Fint village, al-Fishan Center in the Beni Suef governorate. Allow me to introduce myself: I have received advanced degrees, having completed a degree in philosophy and a master’s degree from the Faculty of Literature at Cairo University.  Nevertheless, I am an Egyptian with little future, and am threatened by injustice, lies and slander.  On May 31, 2010, I was on a microbus in my village, al-Fint, heading toward al-Fishan to spend the night with one of my relatives.  Ramy Atef, an officer with the al-Fint police department, blocked my path.  He tried to take me from the microbus, and when I asked him why, he said, “get down,” and shoved me down on the back seat.  Then he threw me off the microbus and beat me with both his hands and feet, cursing and screaming insults.  He had   several officers from the al-Fint police department with him.  They took 1500 pounds from me, my ID, and two mobile phones.  He warned: “I took nothing from you,” then handcuffed me and took me to al-Fashin, where he beat me, cursed me and tortured me in every way possible. After that night, they transferred me to the police department in al-Fashin to continue torturing and insulting me.  As I soon as I entered the police station they took me to some place inside the station where First Lt. Ramy Atef, Lt. Hossam al-Reedy, and Lt. Moustafa Khalid tortured me with even worse forms of torture, insults, and curses than before.  Lt. Ramy Atef vowed, “You’ll leave here without any means to bring a lawsuit, and not even the President of the Republic or the Minister of the Interior can help you.  And don’t even think about seeking aid from the prosecutor – you can tell him whatever you want and you won’t see your rights until the Day of Judgment…you don’t know who I am.”  After that they took me to booking and I found myself among criminals and kinds people I never expected nor wished to see.  The next day I found that Lt. Ramy Atef had fabricated a report against me saying I was carrying hash; the report was full of lies and fabrications.  He accused of things I’d never even heard of before – I’ve never even smoked a cigarette!  Dear minister, dear citizen, all I have are my university studies, so I am raising a case against them based on the following accusations: 1) Lt. Ramy Atef, of fabricating a police report concerning hash, which God knows I’ve never even seen, and for beating, cursing and insulting me and stealing 1500 pounds, my ID and two mobiles; 2) Hossam al-Reedy and Moustafa Khalid, for beating, hitting and cursing me; 3) the entire group at al-Fashin for beating, cursing and torturing me.  I am innocent and a peaceful, respectable citizen.  I am putting my case in your hands and waiting for you to restore this injustice. (From a letter from the victim’s brother).
3. More than 30 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were injured when they were attacked by Egyptian security forces Saturday evening as they headed to voting stations organized by the residents of Abu Homos, Baheira governorate.  The following day, several security officers went to the hospital to arrest 13 of the injured individuals who were there receiving treatment for their wounds.  Security forces led by Ministry of Interior inspector Gamal Abd al-Atefy and Head of Investigations in the Abu Homos police station officer Amr Allam attacked supporters of Muslim Brotherhood candidate in the Shoura Council elections for the third district, Mohamed Aoud al-Ziat, shooting them with rubber bullets, water and tear gas, on Saturday evening.  Thirty residents of Abu Homos were injured during the course of the attack, most of them severely, and were taken in an ambulance to the hospital in Abu Homos.  The attacks came a day before a visit from the organizing secretary of the National Democratic Party Ahmed Ezz, to the Abu Homos, Hosh Issa and Abu al-Matamir regions, who was to conduct organizational meetings with NDP members to discuss how to approach Muslim Brotherhood candidates.  Journalists were barred from the meetings. (Ikhwan Online)
4. Security forces abducted two members of the Legal Association for Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed al-Ziat, Gameel Deif and Aly al-Din.  An Abu Homos resident was abducted and his whereabouts remain unknown.  Trusted sources reported that some of the injured are in critical condition and that three have been transferred to the University of Alexandria hospital.  One person lost his eye as a result of shots fired on him by security forces. (Ikhwan Online)
5. Two injured persons were abducted and taken to the prosecutor to be charged: Security forces, headed by Head of Investigations in Abu Homos Amr Allam, invaded the Abu Homos general hospital and abducted 13 patients who were there receiving treatment for injuries they received the previous day.  Security forces ripped their hospital admittance sheets and took them to the prosecutor, where they were accused of assaulting security forces, inciting unrest, and damaging a police car.  Eye witnesses say that they saw Head of Investigations Amr Allam, accompanied by a number of intelligence officers, hitting one of the police cars in order to provide evidence for the fabricated charges and attribute it to the victims. Eye witnesses also confirmed that the security official and his associates then prepared a police report in the presence of the head of the Abu Homos police department, Alaa al-Din Shawqy.  They also falsified doctor’s reports for four Central Security soldiers, in order to accuse the injured civilian defendants of punching them and damaging their vehicles.   A legal course notes, however, that al-Ziat’s defense team has a number of witnesses at their disposal, who will be presented before the prosecutor during the course of the investigation.  (Al-Karama)

2 June 2010

6. The Damanhour criminal court sentenced defendants to less than the minimum penalty for their attack on Dr. Magda Adly, Director of the Nadim Center: Defendants in cases numbered 3136/2008 and 752/2008 (Depts. Kufr al-Dowar and East Damanhour, respectively), were given less than the minimum sentence by the Damanhour criminal court.  Defendant Ahmed Antar was sentenced with two years imprisonment for intentional assault causing permanent damage and intentional theft on a public road of Dr. Magda Adly, Director of the Nadim Center.  It is worthy of note that the minimum sentence for each of the crimes under Articles 240, 314 and 315 of the Criminal Procedure Code is imprisonment for a period between three and fifteen years, but the court applied clemency to lighten the sentence.  We are still awaiting the details of the judge’s decision in order to understand the reasons behind his granting of clemency, in a crime of assault on an Egyptian citizen whose only crime was to carry evidence of torture against Egyptian citizens to a courthouse, and whose punishment was a severe wound and broken bone in her left arm, causing a permanent disability.
7. Arrest and shooting of citizens in Shoura council elections: At least one Egyptian citizen was injured and abducted at the hands of police, and around a dozens others remain in custody, during Egypt’s half-term Shoura Council elections, which began Tuesday (June 1, 2010), and which will determine 74 seats representing 55 districts in 27 of Egypt’s 29 governorates.  The levels of violence and human rights violations committed against the political opposition in Egypt since declaration of their intentions to participate in the elections.  Four hundred and forty-six candidates will participate in the elections, among them 74 from the NDP, around 15 from the Muslim Brotherhood – the largest opposition political group – and the rest independent candidates or candidates from other parties.  Since this morning, the security apparatus, represented by State Security Investigations forces in cooperation with Central Security forces and General Investigations, have begun attacking a number of polling stations, preventing opposition candidates from entering the stations, ejecting their representatives, and tampering with voting boxes.  Early this morning, two opposition and Muslim Brotherhood representatives discovered that the voting boxes at their polling stations were already full of votes. (Ikhwan Online)
8. The “Al-Karama” organization observed a chain of human rights and legal violations taking place during elections.  In Sharqeya governorate security forces abducted and detained nine Muslim Brotherhood candidate supporters, eight of them from their homes and one from the street, as they were headed to observe the elections as representatives.  State Security Investigations forces in civilian clothes arrested them in the morning from their homes and from the street and the information available indicates that each of the victims remains in custody. Their locations of detention, the agency investigating them, the reason for their detention, and the charges for their detention if any remain unknown, and all of the victims are being kept in isolation. (Al-Karama)
9. A man named Oraby was severely injured in his foot after officer Ahmed al-Bana, an officer the Hosh Issa State Security Investigations forces, shot him in the foot because Oraby insisted on entering the Hosh Issa polling station of al-Qurnein village to vote.  Village residents immediately took him to the hospital. (Al-Karama)
10. State Security forces in civilian clothing abducted Ayman Khattar from in front of polling station #359 in Abu Homos as he voted in a voting booth.  His location and the charges against him remain unknown. (Al-Karama)
11. State Security forces led by Officer Hossam Abu Wafy abducted Gumaa Abu Zeid in front of a polling station in al-Qurnein village in the center of Hosh Issa in Baheira governorate as he voted.  The victim’s location and condition are unknown.  (Al-Karama)
12. A statement concerning Samy Fayez Oraby, a supporter of Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Aoud al-Ziad in the Abu Homos/Abu al-Matamir/Hosh Issa districts in Baheira, who was fired upon yesterday by Officer Ahmed al-Bana: Reports have confirmed that he was transferred to the Hosh Issa general hospital.  Staff treatment him then determined that it was necessary to transfer him quickly to the Damanhour Teaching Hospital for emergency surgery, according to a doctor’s report.  Within minutes of his arrival in the Damanhour Teaching Hospital, Samy, who had been shot in his stomach, was visited by investigators from the Damanhour police station, who handcuffed him in his bed in the emergency ward and tore up his admittance sheet from the hospital in central Hosh Issa.  This citizen, who was being cared for by doctors and hospital staff who took a binding oath to place the patient’s health, life and safety above all else, spent his evening yesterday chained to his bed with handcuffs.  Notably, the security forces themselves took three patients from the Hosh Issa hospital as they were receiving treatment and while they still had IVs in their arms.  The patients’ names are: Ahmed Naguib Hamid, Essam Gibriel, and Sherief Fathy Abd al-Atefy.  It is clear that the security authorities took advantage of the powers available to them under the Emergency Law, and went above and beyond those powers, to secure loyalty to the system which appointed them and which they now seek to protect.  It is also clear that the use of the Emergency Law, authoritarianism, arrests and torture, and fraudulent elections are all human rights violations that have reached scandalous proportions as the authorities prepare to ensure that they maintain control of the Parliament and Shoura Council and they are prepared to ensure there are no disturbances during presidential elections in 2011.  It remains unclear, however, how hospitals have become the fifth column in the chain of police repression.  We, as doctors, are ashamed at the use of our profession to supplement the role of the police in pursuing citizens to detain and repress them.  We therefore direct this statement to the Minister of Health and to the Head of the Doctors’ Syndicate to request these two institutions to inspect Damanhour Teaching Hospital and investigate its role in chaining Samy Fayez Oraby to his bed with handcuffs just as he was to be operated on for the removal of the bullet in his body.  We hold the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health responsible for the life and safety of Samy Oraby.  We are also sending a copy of this statement to Dr. Hatim al-Gabaly, the Minister of Health, and Dr. Hamdy al-Sayyid, Head of the Doctors’ Syndicate. (The Nadim Center)

5 June 2010

13. After firing on two supporters of a Brotherhood candidate during Shoura Council elections, the Ministry of Interior took Samy Fayed Oraby as he was handcuffed to a hospital bed. (Al-Dostour)
14. Detention orders were renewed for 9 supporters of Brotherhood candidate for the Shoura Council elections Mohamed Aoud al-Ziat.  Among these were Samy Oraby, who became a victim of police brutality during the elections when security forces in Damanhour handcuffed him to his hospital bed in the orthopedic department of the Damanhour Teaching Hospital, despite his critical condition, under a heavy security presence.  During prosecution investigations, Oraby had accused Officer Ahmed al-Banna of shooting him with live bullets in the polling station at al-Qurnein village, Hosh Issa, He was injured in his right thigh and taken to Hosh Issa Hospital, then transferred to Damanhour Teaching Hospital. (Al-Dostour)
15. Fifty prisoners in Al-Wady al-Gedid prison went on hunger strike to protest their detention in solitary confinement since the beginning of last May, without justification. (Al-Shorouq)
16. Security forces attacked women in an Egyptian village in support of a high-ranking police officer in his efforts to rob peasants’ land from women in al-Amreya, Beheira.  Twenty-four hours after the destruction of peasants’ homes in al-Amreya village, central Damanhour, fifteen security cars arrived at 4 AM, carrying high-ranking Secret Police and security officers, headed by Cl. Mohamed al-Badrawy and Tariq Lebib, who attacked the women in efforts to rob their property.

8 June 2010

17. Two intelligence officers in the Sidi Gaber police station invaded an internet cafe and attacked a young man inside, Khalid Said, beating him to death.
18. This morning, a group of investigators from central Damanhour, led by Officer Amir al-Saadany and under the supervision of Officer Ahmed Atta Allah Abu Sana, raided the property of a peasant in police vehicles (numbered 9656 and 9661).  The peasant had purchased the property in 2000 from Bahaa Ahmed Helmy Nouar.  Two neighboring farmers aided the security forces as they destroyed the agricultural products being cultivated on the land (corn that had been planted three weeks prior), completely stripping it.  Their aim was to change the contours of of the land in order to claim its ownership by the Head of State Security Investigations in Baheira, in the event that the court would transfer the case to an agricultural expert in its sitting tomorrow (Wednesday, June 9, 2010) for determination of the land’s actual owner.  Thus, Tariq Heikal was racing against time to arrest the land’s proper owners from among the peasants to force them to give it up after changing its features in the manner mentioned above.  The peasants were nowhere to be found – the women had rushed to the property to try to prevent them from stealing the crops and prevent the State Security head from seizing the land – prompting police forces (including informants Said Abu Hafida, Rida and Emad) to detain them in police cars until they were finished with their task.  On the other said, Elham Abd al-Gowar Riyyad, Gaber Shihab’s wife, was taken to the Damanhour general hospital after suffering from severe bleeding after policemen beat her, which put her at risk of a a spontaneous abortion, according to doctor’s reports and the report of Mohamed Abd al-Aziz, the peasants’ lawyer.  Police returned to the property at 12 PM this afternoon and attacked the farmers, breaking their irrigation machines in an effort to prevent them from being able to irrigate the rest of their land, and continue their siege on the farmers to force them into giving up the property.  (The Committee for Support of Peasant Farmers in Egypt website)
19. After 80 days’ imprisonment: State Security prosecutor frees all detainees belonging to the Ahmady sect after their having been detained for more than 80 days for their relationship with the sect.  Ahmed Ramadan, the legal representative for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said, “The detention of Egyptian citizens for this long period, just because their beliefs differ, is a form of arbitrary detention, and those responsible must be held accountable.”  State Security Investigations forces unleashed a campaign of arrests last May 15th, targeting a number of individuals following the Ahmady Islamists.  Nine individuals were detained inside various  State Security Investigations locations for more than six weeks without their being presented to any legal organization or facing any charges.  At the end of April, the prisoners were presented to the High State Security Prosecutor, and during the investigations, several of the defendants reported to the prosecutor that they had been subject to torture at the hands of State Security Investigations officers in order to force them to confess to the charges against them.  EIPR lawyers present at the investigations petitioned the prosecutor to open an independent investigation into the allegations of the perpetration of torture directed against some of the SSI officers.  The lawyers also asserted that it is impermissible to question defendants about their religious beliefs since it violates the protection granted by the constitution to embrace the beliefs they wish.  They also contested the Criminal Procedure Law Article 98, which, they said, violates the constitutionally granted freedoms of belief and expression, and because the text of the law is lacking in the most important foundational principles of penal law, those being that its text is clear and is neither vague nor defective.

9 June 2010

20. A police officer and lower-ranking policeman slap a lawyer in his face as he attendance a wedding party in Abd al-Malek street and insulted him with derogatory remarks.  The officer tore up his lawyer’s identification, and the two took him to the Imbaba police station where they held him until morning. (Al-Wafd)

11 June 2010

21. Alexandrian activists, including an Al-Dostour newspaper photographer, were arrested during their participation in a sit-in in front of the Sidi Gaber police station protesting the torture and murder of a citizen.  (Al-Dostour)
22. Young men and women are brutally tortured, abused, and detained inside the Sidi Gaber police station in Alexandria after they they claimed to know who Khalid Mohamed Said’s killers were. It is worthy of note that each of those tortured were blindfolded throughout the torture so that they would not be able to identify the officers undertaking the brutal acts against them. Demonstrators in front of the Sidi Gaber police station were charged with disturbing the public peace; disrespecting the government; endangering public transportation; threatening and carrying out illegal measures in an attempt to invade a government building (the Sidi Gaber police station); participation in an illegal gathering; participation in a gathering of more than 30 people; disrespecting agents of the state (the Ministry of Interior) and public employees; insulting public employees: Lt. Colonel Ahmed Osman, Officer Elhamy Abd al-Muneim, Major Ahmed Ezz, and Captain Khalid Abd al-Fattah.
23. Egypt refuses to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

12 June 2010

24. The Ministry of Interior claims that Khalid Said’s death resulting from his swallowing a package of marijuana, while the autopsy reveals that the death resulted from asphyxia due to strangulation.

13 June 2010

25. Dozens of demonstrators in front of the Interior Ministry on Lazoghly street were arrested as they protested the death of Khalid Said, called for a trial against his killers, and demanded resignation of Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly.  They were released that evening in various parts of Cairo.

14 June 2010

26. From a letter: Two secret police officers and one lower-ranking policeman took me and asked to see my ID.  I didn’t know them at all; I live abroad and no one has ever asked me for those things.  So I asked them to tell me who they were, and told them that then I would give them my ID.  They took all my money – 570 pounds – and I learned one of them was a secret police officer named Hassan; I know how the secret police generally look.  The others took me and beat me in the street in front of Al-Ziqaziq station as I was returning from taking my first-semester exams. They put drugs in my pocket and took me to see an officer.  They told him: “He’s got drugs on him, ya basha”…the insults and injustice were horrible.  They beat my face while I was tied up and told me to get in the Box (the name for police vehicles used to shuttle detainees).  I went to get in, but they let me go because it was full… by God, they hit my head against the microbus as it was pulling away and beat me; I was so humiliated.  I couldn’t believe it when I found this site to issue my complaint, an entire year after what happened.  I cannot rest until I see them humiliated in front of the world as I was and restore my dignity.

15 June 2010

27. Man tortured to death in Nasr City: Abd al-Samiye Sabr Abd al-Samiye owned a kiosk in Nasr City for 40 years.  Nasr City’s regional head decided to evict him and remove his kiosk without any legal or rational justification, despite the fact that Abd al-Samiye had the correct permit for owning the kiosk and payed the necessary taxes, as demonstrated by the evidence gathered.  In addition to all this, he had owned the kiosk throughout the terms of several previous regional heads, none of which had ever made such a decision.  Abd al-Samiye was taken to the Nasr City Police Station #1, them presented to the prosecutor, who ordered his release.  Officials in the police department, however, decided to keep him in the police station in order to please the regional head, with the excuse that he had the same name as another suspect in another case. The station administration denied him food and drink, according to his family, and denied them visits in order to check on his condition.  The family suddenly received a call informing them that they needed to come to the police station because their relative had died, a result of slipping on the stairs.  When they came to identify him, and only after numerous delays, the family saw their father’s body, which showed numerous signs that he had been severely tortured – bruises, abrasions and swelling all over his body, signs of beating and whipping on the back of his neck. The family was horrified when they found a deep puncture wound on their father’s head – a hole three fingers deep.

17 June 2010

28. A secret police officer was present for every grave as Khalid Said’s body was exhumed and an autopsy performed in the cemetery.  (Al-Shorouq)

18 June 2010

29. An autopsy report revealed that the death of Saber Abd al-Samiye, who died in Nasr City Police Department #1, resulted from natural occurrences and that there was no evidence of criminal activity.  The report, which was presented to the Nasr City prosecutor, said that the injury present in the corpse’s head occurred after his death, which comports with the account given by security officers.  They claimed that the victim’s head struck the ground after his death in front of the police department immediately after bringing out his body!!! (Al-Shorouq)

20 June 2010

30. Participants in a peaceful demonstration against torture in downtown Cairo were violently attacked by police and Central Security forces.  Several were severely beaten and around 50 participants were randomly arrested.  At the time of this writing they were still detained (7:30 PM) .  Those detained include Emad Mubarak, lawyer and director of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression; a Turkish journalist; and the associate researcher for Human Rights Watch.  A number of human rights and political activists called for organization of a demonstration at 5 PM today in Midan Tahrir, downtown Cairo, in protest of the murder of Khalid Said after he was beaten by Alexandria police on June 6.  Eye witnesses and participants in the demonstration stated that demonstrators failed to reach Midan Tahrir due to the heavy security presence wearing plain clothes, and they therefore decided to gather in Midan Bab al-Louq.  They then marched along downtown streets, repeating slogans against torture until they were surrounded at the intersection of Sharif and Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat streets.  After around 45 minutes police and Central Security forces began to attack the demonstrators, severely beating them.  Eyewitnesses stated that they saw at least four women kicked by police and fall on the ground.  Around 55 men were then randomly arrested and the women were allowed to go.  A number of male and female journalists were attacked as they covered the demonstration.  The rest of the participants organized a demonstration in front of the Journalists’ Syndicate.  (Front for the Defense of Demonstrators in Egypt)

21 June 2010

31. Nabil Mohamed Abd al-Magid wishes for death in his house: “I want to die at home,” is all Nabil Mohamed Abd al-Magid, a 70 year-old Moroccan man wishes for.  He is a resident inside Tora Prison where, he has been imprisoned after being sentenced, during the the al-Jihad case in 1979, to prison for 53 years.  He has served 30.  Despite his suffering from more than 23 illnesses at the same time, the Interior Ministry refused to release him until now.  Mohamed Nabil Mohamed, 30 years old and the son of the prisoner, said that he hadn’t seen his father since his birth, like the rest of his siblings, since his father had been in prison since before the death of Sadat.  He was charged with belonging to the Al-Jihad organization and was sentenced to life in prison in 1981 by the Emergency High State Security Court.  No sooner had he begun to serve the sentence in prisoner when another sentence was passed against him of three years in prison.  He was then presented to the High Military Courts, also while in prison, and was sentenced in criminal case #5/1995 to a life term of hard labor, thus making the bringing of the sentences against him to 53 years, of which he has sentenced around 30.  He added that his father, who turned 70 in prison, was satisfied with God’s will despite having entered when he was no more than 28.   His illnesses, however, had transformed him into a dying body, for he was struck with 23 illnesses simultaneously, including severe liver fibrosis, high blood pressure, enlarged kidneys and spleen, diabetes, cirrhosis of the heart muscle, extension in the front left ventricle of his heart, convulsions, loss of consciousness, and osteoporosis.  This is in addition to a number of illnesses he suffers from as a result of being bedridden.  Despite all of this, from 1994 to 2001 his family was been unable to meet with him.  After 2001, they were allowed to make intermittent visits, once a year.  Mokhtar Nouh, a lawyer and volunteer defense counsel for prisoners – he and some of his colleagues together work to defend the lives of prisoners who suffer from fatal illnesses inside Egyptian prisons; their number has reached 30 cases of prisoners close to death because of the length of their sentences (more than 50 years).  Among these is Nabil Mohamed Abd al-Magid who, despite his suffering from numerous illnesses simultaneously, the Interior Ministry insists on killing in prison, by leaving him to suffer from these illnesses and refusing to release him. (Al-Dostour)

24 June 2010

32. From a letter: First, I’ll write what happened to me with all honesty, but I don’t know if these words will have any effect.  I have hope that I might get my rights back…despite the fact that at the same time I don’t know who these words will reach….but I will try anyway, and if there is even one in a hundred chance, even though I know this has happened with many people, but when it happens to a tramp, or a blogger with a criminal record with the government, I can say that it’s kind of reasonable.  But for this to happen to someone with a university degree and nothing to do with those kinds of thing I think that it’s….but, never mind; I don’t know how to describe it.  In general, I don’t want to talk a lot about what I see almost every day, because it will take a lot of time.  In general, my problem is that one day I was going to the university around 6 AM.  My train leaves at 7AM, heading to — and leaving from —.  Suddenly, as I was on my way to the station, I came across a white microbus and thought it was going to the station, and hailed it.  I found a group of secret police surrounding me, telling me to come talk to the Basha.  I told them, “What’s going on, exactly?” – Suddenly I found myself being beaten.  I went back with them to speak to the Basha, and of course after one word he was on the microbus next to the driver.  He asked me what I was doing there, as I was standing and the street was empty, and it was very cold.  At any rate, I answered as respectfully as possible and told him, “Sir, I was on the microbus and heading towards university.”  He said to me, “Which college are you in?”  I told him I was in the — faculty at the — University.  He asked me for my ID.  I told him I had it, and as I was pulling it out, my whole wallet fell on the floor.  Because the way he had talked to me scared me – that was the first time I was ever in that kind of position – all of the papers and cards that I had on me in the wallet fell on the dirt and, of course, I dropped the wallet.  He said to me, “What have you been drinking,” and starting saying all kinds of things to me.  I couldn’t get a grip on myself when I felt the injustice of the painful things he was saying; I was shaking in the cold.  I told him, shaking from fear and cold, “Honestly I don’t have anything like that, I swear to God I was going to the university, nothing more…”  When he saw me start crying I was angry with how insulted I felt.  He asked me what my father did for work, so I told him “My father is retired, sir.”  He said to me, “So, what was he doing then?!”  I told him, “Sir, he did work.”  He said, “Fine, get out of here, and I don’t want to see you again, because if I do you’re not going to be happy.”

29 June 2010

33. Security forces in Alexandria, led by Hisham al-Khattib, abducted 10 activists, including members of the 6 April Youth Movement in Alexandria, from in front of the “Gumhoureya” newspaper headquarters in Alexandria.  This came after the activists’ call for a demonstration in front of the newspaper in protest of its description of martyr Khalid Said as the “marijuana martyr,” and its dissemination of false information about him.  Security forces seized the belongings of all the activists, including cameras and glasses.  A number of other activists managed to run from the gang of security officers.  According to legal sources in Alexandria, the detainees were transferred to the Mansheya Police Department.  Around 10 Central Security vehicles and dozens of soldiers arrived in Midan Mansheya in Alexandria to prevent the demonstration in front of the newspaper offices. (6 April website)
34. Sayyid Mahrous Abu al-Yezid died in the Abdeen police station after a disagreement over his apartment with a low-ranking police officer.  Mahrous Sayiid Mahrous, the 28-year-old son of the victim, describes the details of the incident as having begun last August, when his father informed him of his intention to give one of the apartments from their real estate to someone for two month, until he was able to arrange his affairs and find alternate arrangements.  He indicated that he wouldn’t prepare a lease for the tenant for that period because he wouldn’t be paying rent.  The son added at the time he worked as an accountant in a hotel in Hurghada, and that he agreed with his father’s decision to help this person, a police officer named Sharif Shaqiq.  However, they were surprised to find that, when the two-month period ended, he refused to leave the apartment and announced to them his intention to stay, claiming that he had a contract showing him as the apartment’s owner.  The victim’s son states that he had fabricated a fake contract and used it to obtain the apartment.  Mahrous further stated that his father, Sayyid Mahrous Abu al-Yazid, worked as a clothing and shoes salesman and had no choice but to sue Sharif.  It turned out that Sharif was the brother of an officer in the Abdeen police department, so in order to have him return the apartment, it was necessary to ascertain whether the signature on his ownership contract was real or not.  The victim’s son says that his father told him of his intention to test the veracity of the signature, and to determine whether the contract was real or fraudulent.  On the day his father told him this, as he was walking on Mostafa Kamel street in Abdeen on his way to test the contract, his father came upon police officer Mahmoud Shaqiq, Sharif’s brother.  A verbal argument ensued, in the course of which Mahmoud began to beat his father in the street, claiming that he was a fugitive and was trying to escape serving a sentence so that he could take him to the police station.  Mahrous continued his story to Al-Youm al-Sabaa, saying that after the police officer took him to Abdeen police station he continue to beat him, until his father died in the police station, according to his son.  He states that when he visited the morgue into order to clean his father’s body before his burial, he discovered marks on the upper part of his father’s head that indicated he was beaten, probably result from the police officer’s having tortured him and beat him with the butt of his pistol, and wondered how his father could have hit his head on a wall causing the injury, if it was located on the top of his head. (Al-Youm al-Sabaa)

30 June 2010

35. From June 10 to June 13, 2010, Mohamed Farouq was detained in State Security Investigations Headquarters in 6 October, where he was subjected to severe beatings and verbal abuse.  He was transported to the Damanhour general prison on June 14, where he currently remains with the other eight detainees.  EIPR lawyers presented complaint #3155/2010 against his new detention order.  The High State Security Court heard the complaint yesterday, and based on it its decision to cancel the detention order and request that the Ministry of the Interior release the detainee.  On July 7, EIPR lawyers presented a report to the Attorney General, #12907/2010, that accuses State Security Investigations officers in 6 October City of illegally detaining Mohamed Farouq, torturing him, and issuing illegal detention orders.  Until now, the report’s allegations have not been investigated.  (The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights)
36. Members of the police invaded the committee for oversight of the general final examinations (the “Thanawaya Aama”) at the Tarian School for Basic Education in the Hamoul Center in Kufr al-Shiekh, attacking the director of the committee and inflicting him with a severe head wound.  This came after he reprimanded the son of a high-ranking official in the Kufr al-Sheikh security directorate when he was caught cheating using an electronic clock capable of storing information.  The security forces tried to recover the watch and take back the boy’s answer sheets. (Masrawy)
37. A short time ago we reported that a citizen named Ahmed Harby had been detained in the Al-Wayaly police department for a month.  He was supposed to be presented to the prosecutor two weeks ago, but Captain Ahmed Abd al-Nasser refused to bring him, as he was injured. According the reports we have received, Ahmed Harby was raped and tortured and is unable to move his arms and legs.  We are in the process of attempting to find out more information. (Al-Nadim Center)

And the diaries continue…