Egypt: Officer Who Tortured, Killed Citizen Appears Before Trial Today

The State Security officer, Ashraf Mostafa Hussein Safwat, appears before trial today on charge of torturing a citizen to death, the first time in which a State Security officer is tried in more than twenty years .

The case No. of 4681 of the year 2004 Criminal Cases- Hadaiq Al-Qobba- registered No. 533 of the year of 2005 Criminal Cases-West of Cairo, is to be heard by the 25th District Court in New Cairo city.

The incidents of the case began in 2003, when the defendant “officer” arrested both brothers, Mohamed and Sameh Abdul Qader Al Sayed, in Hadaiq Al-Quba police station and tortured them, till the first one died after he was electrocuted, three days after he was arrested.

The website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, hrinfo.net, reported that the investigations into that incidents lasted for more than 3 years till they were referred to the Criminal Court, adding that “there are strong evidences that the security services exercised pressures on relatives of the dead person to drop the lawsuit.”

This is the first time in more than twenty years, since 1986 in which 44 officers were tried, that a State Security Police officer is brought to justice.

The network pointed out that a big number of human rights organizations expressed their solidarity with the victims through forming a “human rights coalition” to monitor the trial; the coalition includes:

The Egyptian Association Against Torture.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

The Egyptian Initiative of Personal Rights.

The National Center for Law and Human Rights.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.

The Freedoms Committee in the Egyptian Bar Association.

Land Center for Human Rights.

Cairo Center for Human Right Studies.

Al-Nadeem Center for Psychological Rehabilitation and Treatment of Victims of Violence.

Hisham Mubark Law Center.

Mahmoud Qandil, a lawyer.

It is worth mentioning that human rights activists and bloggers posted footages in which Egyptian policemen tortured and taunted a number of male and female citizens, in a way that triggered a wide anger and criticism of international human rights organizations.