On Thursday Sayed Abd Rabu, 40, died in the Cairo district of Matariya. The Interior Ministry said Abd Rabu died after trying to evade police who had been sent to arrest him on suspicion of torching a telecommunications tower. “When he tried to escape he fell to the ground and sustained fractures to his skull,” said an Interior Ministry statement. Abd Rabu was transferred to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. The Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms offers an alternative story, claiming Abd Rabu was tortured after being arrested. The Islamist Anti-Coup Alliance, which has been calling for anti-government protests since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, accused police of storming Abd Rabu's house and taking him to the notorious Matariya police station where he died. Rights lawyers routinely refer to Matariya police station as the “slaughterhouse”. Rights lawyer Islam Khalifa says Matariya and Ain Shams police stations have the dubious distinction of topping the league tables when it comes to the torture of detainees. “In Matariya and Ain Shams police stations at least two detainees have been reported dead each week for months now,” Khalifa told Al-Ahram Weekly. Last month, two National Security officers charged with torturing lawyer Karim Hamdi to death in Matariya police station were referred to trail. A forensic report concluded Hamdi had “suffered broken ribs and severe internal bleeding in the brain commensurate with being beaten”. On Sunday, the NGO Al-Haqaneya Law Centre reported that three policemen had been referred to criminal court after a citizen died from torture in a police station in the governorate of Beheira. The Interior Ministry had said the suspect, arrested following a security chase, had been suffering from low blood pressure, and that they tried to provide him medical assistance. On the same day a police conscript was sentenced to life by Giza Criminal Court after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a mentally ill female prisoner inside Imbaba police station. The incident occurred on August 2014, when a mentally ill girl was detained in Imbaba. The prosecution used security camera recordings as evidence against the policeman, and the testimonies of the 18-year-old victim's cellmates. The conviction came despite the Forensic Medicine Authority's failure to support the victim's claims. Al-Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence says it monitored ten deaths in places of detention during April. “Sixty eight cases of torture were also recorded during the month at National Security headquarters in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Damietta, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Tanta, Mehalla and Qena,” says Al-Nadeem's report issued early this month. “We are witnessing a return to methods of policing that were common before the 25 January Revolution,” Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, the vice head of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), told Al-Ahram Weekly. It was no coincidence that the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak began on 25 January 2011, celebrated by the Mubarak regime as National Police Day. For decades the security apparatus had been the iron fist of the regime, suppressing any whisper of dissent. Founder of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) Gamal Eid believes that there is no return to old practices because the practices were never abandoned. “Nothing about the old regime has changed except its figureheads. The same old policies still apply,” says Eid. “There is no political will to respect the rule of law or the humanity of prisoners.” “Leading figures from the Mubarak-regime who were detained were treated perfectly well in prison. Yet when it comes to the young people who participated in the revolution all we see is a history of harassment and brutal violations. The contrast makes it clear where the sympathies of the system lie.” Two weeks ago Interior Minister Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar announced that staff were “working on treating citizens humanely” after public criticism of police abuses. During a meeting with senior security officials, Abdel-Ghaffar said that policemen were being advised on how to better strike a balance “between ensuring security… and human rights and freedoms”. In an attempt to contain the growing anger at the number of violations, the ministry opened a help line last month allowing citizens to report any cases of abuse perpetrated by police officers or conscripts. It allocated three telephone numbers: 01126977444 – 01126977333 – 01126977222. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi acknowledged that there had been “some” violations by security forces during a speech on Police Day 2015. Though he insisted human rights violations will not be tolerated he warned they were likely to continue as long as the country is facing an “exceptional” security situation. Shukr warns that using the current situation as an excuse for systematic police abuse will not contain public anger forever. “The revolution is retreating but it will not be inactive for long,” he said. Last month, both the state and private press hurled accusations of misconduct at the Interior Ministry. Privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm published a seven-page feature on 19 April under the headline “The Police: Martyrs and Sins — Holes in the Official Uniform.” The report, which documented accusations of police brutality, concluded that security personnel had engaged in torture, rape, abuse, theft, and kidnapping. The report dealt in detail with five notorious incidents: the murder of leftist activist Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh during a march; the murder of a conscript by his commanding officer in Sinai; the shooting of a convict by a police officer in a hospital; the alleged rape of a girl by two policemen and the torturing to death of Karim Hamdi in Matariya police station. State-owned Al-Ahram daily followed suit on 25 April under the banner “Those who don't die of torture die of suffocation”. The report, which focused on conditions inside Old Cairo police station where two detainees died early last month, highlighted police abuse of power and negligence “We would like to ask officials in the Ministry of Interior when they consider the lives of citizens of value and remind them defendants are innocent until proven guilty,” said the article. On 27 April privately-owned Al-Badil newspaper published a report listing actions taken against journalists in the previous four weeks. It included three cases of journalists being detained by security forces, nine cases of journalists being interrogated by prosecution authorities, three cases of journalists being forcibly prevented from covering events and three cases of physical and/or verbal abuse. In March human rights lawyer Negad Al-Borai, Judge Assem Abdel-Gabbar from the Appeals Court and Judge Hisham Abdel-Raouf from the Court of Cassation, presented a draft law to the government which, in an attempt to end the torture of prisoners, criminalised their mistreatment in police stations and detention facilities. On 13 April the Court of Cassation referred the two judges to investigation for their efforts. Al-Borai denounced the decision on his official Facebook page, arguing the referral showed the government did not want to end torture. “The government and the judiciary clearly do not want to halt torture when they refer whoever works on ending this shameful practice to investigation,” he wrote. This week Al-Borai was himself summoned for questioning over the draft law. Attempts to contact him by the Weekly on Tuesday all failed. Copies of the draft law published in the media reveal that it attempted to impose a statutory five-year prison sentence for any security official found guilty of torturing detainees, increased penalties if the victim is female or a minor, and prosecution for murder should the torture result in the death of the victim.
