- Human RightsPrisoners of Conscience
- November 12, 2007
- 3 minutes read
2 Egyptian Policemen Convicted of Sodomising Suspect
Egyptian public prosecution charged two policemen with sodomising a suspect in a drugs case in the Nile Delta and are investigating a third officer suspected of taking part, prosecution sources said on Sunday, Reuters News Agency reported on Sunday.
The police report on the case quotes the suspect, 27-year-old Ahmed Sayed Hussein, as saying the detectives in Kalyoubia province tied him up with ropes, thrashed him with a belt and sodomised him with their hands.
The prosecutors referred Hussein to a medical examination, which confirmed damage to his body and to his anus, it said.
Hussein was detained in the town of Kanatir, near Cairo, two months ago and did not report the alleged abuse until he saw media reports of a Cairo court sentencing two policemen to three years in prison for sodomising a man with a stick.
A ruling in this case was issued last week after a trial that became of a symbol of what human rights organizations call a wide spread use of torture in police stations in Egypt .
It is worth mentioning that Giza Criminal court sentenced last Nov, 5th, 2007, officer Islam Nabih and a policeman to 3 years hard labor for torturing and sodomising citizen Emad El Kabir two years ago in a case that enraged the Egyptian public opinion and stirred condemnations of international human rights organizations.
Only one day after issuing the court ruling in the most famous torture case in Egypt, authorities opened a new investigation into the death of an Egyptian young man affected by wounds he sustained when policemen tortured him for 3 days in Umraniya police station, Giza south of the Cairo, a security source said.
Local and international human rights organizations condemn torture in the Egyptian police stations. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said in August 2007 that it documented 567 known cases of police abuse since 1993, 167 of which resulted in deaths.
Last January, the manager of the Middle East branch of the Human Rights Watch Organization, Sarah Leah said:” Torture is systematic in Egyptian police stations”.
Also, the Amnesty International criticized last April “Arbitrary detentions, long detentions without trial and torturing and other ways of abuse committed by security authorities, specially the State Security Police that enjoy wide authorities under the state of emergency- in effect since 1981 till now.
Any policeman convicted of torturing a citizen inside a police station serves 3 to 15 years in prison.
Sexual harassment in public areas is not limited to a specific age category or social class, says the independent Egyptian Centre for Women”s Rights (ECWR), which is spearheading a campaign against this “social cancer” in Egypt, in a report entitled “Sexual predators” prowl Egypt”s streets on Mail &Guardian newspaper.
The report pointed out that it”s easy to beat or sexually harass women. Even sodomising men has become a familiar scene in Egypt. Welcome to Egypt.