Blacklist of Egyptian Torture Officers Issued

A blacklist that includes names of policemen involved in committing tortures against Egyptian citizens during the period between 2003 and 2006 was issued in the Egyptian capital Cairo ahead of suing them.
 
This blacklist- prepared by Al-Nadeem Al-Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, a copy of which was obtained by Ikhwanweb on Monday, includes names 272 officers accused of torture and 51 citizens who died in the same period due to being tortured inside police stations.
 
The list documented about one thousand torture incidents accompanied by testimonies of victims who submitted official complaints to the human rights center, in addition to an appendix that includes documented cases of torture which have been documented also by other organizations like the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid, the Egyptian Association Against Torture and Hesham Mubarak law centre.

Systematic Torture

A statement issued by Al-Nadeem said that it started to take legal procedures to sue officers named in the report in front of the Egyptian justice, and it sent the report to the attorney general, Parliament speaker and MPs.
 
The center confirmed that the report “reveals security authorities” false claims that tortures revealed from time to time by the media are individual cases of deviant officers. The report presents documented evidences proving that tortures have become a systematic phenomenon.
 
Dr. Aida Saif Al-Dawla, the Center”s Deputy Manager, said:” Torturing has become systematic in Egypt. The tools of torture aren”t bought from the officers” own salaries. These torture tools are bought by the Ministry of Interior from the state budget”.
 
She attributed this step to “The high increase in torture incidents recently revealed, making the center declare its lists of policemen involved in torture incidents”.

She pointed out that the media interest in some cases heard in courts which issued prison sentences against the involved officers” ended fear among citizens who were previously fearing to report their torturing lest they face oppression from the security services”.

The new human rights report tackled the most notorious violations committed by the Egyptian police during the past three last years, including assaulting and beating Islamic and independent candidates and some judges during the last parliamentary elections in November and December 2005.
Add to this the sexual harassment committed by plain clothes security elements against female activists and journalists on May, 25th, 2005 during a demonstration protesting at amending article 76 of the constitution related to conditions of running for presidency, proposed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The report included also detentions carried out by the police during marches protesting at the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and the incident of dispersing a sit in of Sudanese refugees using force in 30 December 2005, killing about 27 Sudanese.