MB MP: Return of Police Criminals To Service A Negative Message

Member of the MB Parliamentary Bloc MP Esam Mokhtar requested that the highest level of sanctions be imposed on the police officers who committed crimes of torture against Egyptian citizens.

In his statement to Ikhwanweb, Mokhtar refused the return of these police to service pointing out that this gives a wrong message to their colleagues that punishments for committing such crimes are light.

Mokhtar also expressed his disappointment in the transformation of torture in Egyptian prisons and police stations into a phenomenon emphasizing the necessity for training police on how to respect the dignity of the Egyptian being.

Amnesty International had requested the Minister of Interior General Habib El-Adly not to allow the two police, who had been condemned for committing torture crimes, to return to service after hearing media reports talking about the return of Chief Police Islam Nabih and Police Secretary Reda Fathy to their duty stations in Asyut soon.

Amnesty further argued that the return of the two police who were released late March was an explicit encouragement on the part of the Egyptian authorities for all police to practice torture.

Middle East and North Africa Program Manager Malcolm Smart said, “The return of these two police sends a negative signal concerning the commitment of Egyptian authorities in combating torture of prisoners, considering that torture and other forms of bad treatment in police and detention centers are many.”

“Their return to service, appointment in any other official authority or any authority responsible for the execution of laws, or branches of the security forces will be, in any form, inappropriate,” Smart said adding, “It also represents a clear violation of both international law and criteria of human rights which stipulate the dismissal of any state employee who commits gross human rights violations, including torture, from service.”

The incident of the two police goes back to January 20, 2006 when they arrested a driver, Emad El-Kebir, and beat him after intervening to break up a fight between his brother and other police officers.  His human dignity was severely violated as police thrust a hard stick into his behind, an incident that was recorded on a mobile camera and circulated on internet blogs.

Officers Islam Nabih and Reda Fathy were tried on December that year before Giza Criminal Court, a year later on November 2007, sentenced them to three years of prison with labor.  The court said that it was lenient with them because of their young age and weak experience.