Al Fayyum Police Torture Citizen to Death, Families Refuses to Take Body

Al Fayyum Police Torture Citizen to Death, Families Refuses to Take Body

The family of the man who was tortured to death by Al Fayyum policemen refused to take his body until they see the forensic medicine report that documents the injuries and tortured that Mohamed Gomaah Hassan was dealt at the hands of the police captain Moataz Al –Lawag at Bandar Al Fayyum police station on Sep, 19. 2007. On that day, a police force was assaulting a young men at Al Fayyum in front of a junk shop run by the victim Gomaah, dubbed Hamido, who intervened in a humane attempt to stop insulting the young man in the street.
 
Captain Al Lawag assaulted and beat Hamido and took him to Bandar Al Fayyum police station where he tortured him according to his wife Mona Ismail. Mona said that he was tortured and beaten by batons and shoes all over his body till he fainted. The officer threw him in the street and his family took him Al Fayyum public hospital where the report about his case said that he suffered from a brain concussion and an internal bleeding.
To hide the signs of a crime, lieutenant colonel Osama Gomaah the police chief threatened the victim and his family that he would arrest them if they submitted a complaint about the tortures he faced in the police station. Three days later, he dismissed him from the state-run hospital, worsening his health condition,
His family showed his case to a private physician, Magdi Moris, who sent him to hospital.
 
The victim”s brother, Ramadan Gomaah, submitted a complaint to the public prosecution in which he accuses captain Al Lawag and lieutenant colonel Osama Gomaah of beating and torturing his brother inside the police station.
 
He was sent to Mecca specialized hospital whose manager said that he received the victim Gomaah Hassan in a deteriorating condition and discovered that he had an internal bleeding and cuts in the intestines until he died inside hospital on 19 September.
 
The two officers tried to threaten the victim before his death that he either withdraw the complaint or they would fabricate a number of cases against him and his family. When threats failed, Mohamed Hashem, a National Party the leader in Al Fayyum intervened trying to ending the problem specially that the victim”s family has no money to give to hospity the high costs it required. The family was forced to withdraw the first complaint before the victim”s death and to pay the treatment and medicine costs.
 
After the death, the victim”s younger brother Ramadan said that it will not withdraw the complaint he submitted accusing the two officers of torturing his brother to death and he refused to take over the victim”s body from the morgue of Al Fayyum public hospital except after the forensic medicine report documents the torture that his brother faced.
 
He told “Egyptians against Torture” team that he does not want his brother”s body but wants the legal retaliation from killers of his brother.
 
Regarding the forensic medicine report, Eid Sayed Abdullah, the lawyer of the victim”s family, said that a tentative report stated that there is no signs of torture on the body of the victim.
 
Mona Ismail, the victim”s wife confirmed that it will not concede her husband”s right and said that Mohamed Hashem, a National Party the leader in Al Fayyum intervened  and offered 150 thousand pounds to make her withdraw the complaint.
 
Mohamed Gomaah Hassan, or Hamido, 41 years was a junk seller who is survived by three children: Mahmoud 15  years, Yasmin 13 years and Sherif 4 years ” his youngest kid Sherif has a valve inserted in his brain.
 
The victim hasn”t been buried so far and the prosecution completes its investigation with the manager of Al Fayyum public hospital and the physician who received the case on 19 August to recognize the signs of torture seen on the victim”s body.
 
A field visit was carried out by me and colleague Nura Yunus and testimonies of the dead man”s wife, his brother and lawyer and that of the special hospital manager that received the victim were documented and will be presented in a video tape as soon as possible.
 
 
The photo of Al Fayyum victim is from Al-Masri Al-Yom Newspaper and other photos are taken by “Egyptians against Torture” team