By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian court has convicted and jailed three police officers for beating a prisoner and forcing him to parade up and down a busy street wearing women’s underclothes.
Amid increasing high-profile accusations of brutality and torture by the nation’s police officers, the court in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria convicted three officers. It convicted senior officer Maj Yosri Ahmed Issa of torture and of degradation of prisoner, and sentenced him to five years in prison. Two other lower ranking officers who followed his orders were also given one-year sentences for degrading the prisoner.
The ordeal for the victim began on April 2007. Ibrahim Abbas was working at a car park when he asked officer Issa to move his car so other cars can enter the lot. Issa considered the request as an insult and arrested Abbas. At the police station, Issa attempted to force Abbas to confess to a robbery and beat him with batons. Later, he ordered the other two officers to force Abbas to wear women’s clothing and walk on a major street.
Many rights groups say that torture is widespread and systematic in Egyptian jails and police stations. They say torture can include beatings, electric shocks, and sexual assault. And because most torture cases never make it to court, rights violators often times enjoy impunity. Moreover, those who are accused of torture so far have been either acquitted or received light sentences and subsequent pardons.
In recent months, however, the ministry of Interior has increasingly investigated torture allegations. In November, three police officers were sentenced to seven years in prison for torturing a man to death. Three weeks earlier, a Cairo court sentenced two officers to three years in prison after a recorded video in which a man was sodomized with a stick was widely circulated on the Internet, including on the popular video-sharing site YouTube.
The Egyptian government denies torture is systematic. The authorities insist that they prosecute all cases where evidence of torture is provided against policemen.
For more information, please see:
BBC News – Egypt nightie stunt police jailed – 7 January 2008
Associated Press – Police officer jailed 5 years – 7 January 2008
Reuters – Egypt court jails three police in abuse case – 6 January 2008
Independent Online – Egypt policemen jailed in latest abuse case – 6 January 2008
Impunity Watch – Egypt police jailed 7 years for torture death – 1 December 2007
Impunity Watch – Torture endemic in Egypt – 8 November 2007
