- EGYPT
- August 6, 2017
- 3 minutes read
Human Rights Report: 135 Extrajudicial Killings, 90 People Tortured in 6 Months in Egypt
Rights group "The Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedoms" (ECRF), in its latest report entitled "Spilled Blood", detailed 135 cases of extrajudicial killing and 90 cases of torture in the first six months of 2017 in Egypt.
ECRF said the killings included 5 types:
1. Murder by physical direct execution outside the framework of the law, which includes excessive and unwarranted use of weapons by the security forces.
2. Murder by torture.
3. Murder by deliberate medical neglect in prisons and other places of detention.
4. Sectarian killings.
5. Extrajudicial killings by the army and the police.
ECRF pointed out that "45 victims share the first three types of killing mentioned above".
In a second report entitled "Crushed Bodies", ECRF noted that 90 cases of torture were documented during the first half of 2017. All of these were "political prisoners who suffered horrific violations and torture in various detention centers and prisons across Egypt".
Documented cases of killings and torture included 35 incidents of abuse at detention centers, 50 incidents of medical neglect, and 5 of torture. These are a symptom of the systematic crimes committed by security forces at national security compounds.
ECRF added that it "monitored the growing signs of this phenomenon with alarm… Certainly, every detainee arrested for matters of dissident opinion, demonstrating or even suspicion of opposing the current regime is subjected to systematic torture in one way or another".