CAIRO: “If you were able to get Khaled Said's right back before, we would have been you'll get our son's right as well,” mourned Essam Atta's family while waiting for his body outside of the morgue. A statement that was able to put down every revolutionary's head to shame after Essam was said to be tortured multiple times by police officers inside Egypt's most famous and recently “VIP” prison, Tora. “Essam, answer me ya Essam. Answer me!” screamed his mother and sister at the morgue, expecting in delusion, a reply back from the dead. Essam Ali Atta Ali, an Egyptian citizen categorized as “poor lower class,” was serving a two-year sentence in Tora after being prosecuted in a military court due to an apartment's illegal takeover. Some of his cellmates revealed that the prison's officers wanted to set Essam straight after they discovered that he had a SIM card inside prison; a SIM card that his mom was able to give to him furing her latest visit to prison. Essam's dad added more to the story in the investigations, when he said that his son was reportedly abused after a cellmate he had problems with earlier told the officers that Essam had drugs. As a result, the officers decided then to agonize Essam by inserting a water hose into his mouth and sodomizing him with another hose. According to media and several websites that were interested in a new post #jan25 torture incident, a police officer left #EssamAtta in front of Qasr el-Aini Hospial, causing the doctors there to suspect a notorious act, especially after liquid secretions and fluids were thoroughly inspected. “They were torturing him inside when I was visiting and he was screaming for anyone to rescue him. It was Noor, the officer Noor. I screamed back until they kicked me out of prison,” revealed Essam's mother. “My son called me before and told me they were anguishing him with the hoses, yet I couldn't take any action against them,” said #EssamAtta's father. Just like the prominent “We are all Khaled Said” page on Facebook, a new page with the name “We are all Essam” was created; making activists wonder when will their devastating “We are all” pages shared all over the net cease to be needed. Famous Doctor @aidaseif, a psychiatry professor at Ain Shams University and a member of Al Nadeem's Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture, wrote a heart-wrenching piece explaining what happened during the autopsy: “#EssamAtta was alive a couple of days ago, but he lost his life for the price of a mobile SIM card that his torturers viewed as degrading.” Unfortunately, three contradictory statements have been issued regarding #EssamAtta's autopsy: a statement from Al Nadeem, another from the Ministry of Interior on their Facebook page, and a last one from the unofficial Tahrir's Doctor association. The #MOI revealed: #EssamAtta, a prisoner with crimes: “thuggery, illegal occupation of apartments, possession of unlicensed weapon, drug dealing, was ill and unconscious in prison, making the prison's physician suspect of a drug intake.” Such a statement provoked activists as they criticized the #MOI's attempt to attribute crimes to Essam and not take any responsibility regarding what really happened. @aidaseif found such claims absurd, as she criticized the prosecution's order for an intestinal sample from the body rather than a full autopsy, which she argued acts as a biased order refuting any other sides of the story than #MOI's one. She relates to this as well when she announces that the doctor who carried out the autopsy showed her a roll that she claimed was found in Essam's body. @aidaseif showed her anger against the doctor's explanation by revealing that the “roll” was actually clean, had no blood traces, and no intestinal juices inside, “so how was it extracted from Essam's body?” She wasn't the only one enraged, as Malek Adly (@malek), a lawyer in #EssamAtta's case and member of the Hisham Mubarak Legal Center, showed his dissent from the “Tahrir Doctors” statement that alleged that no signs of torture were found, and instead an enclosed latex roll containing a brown substance that is said to be hash and liquefied pills. Malek criticized the statement by accusing one of the doctors of an attempt to forge the “truth.” Also, @malek revealed that both doctors didn't fully attended the entire autopsy process with one of them leaving the other inside for a short duration while saying in regret: “I was wrong to get out of the room, I'm stupid, I was wrong.” @Malek announced that something implausible and unexplainable was going in the “what shall be referred to as an autospy” room. @FouadMB chose to argue with the association's statement as well by revealing that “Ingestion of Cannabis or Hashish (resin form) does not cause a gastric ulcer. In fact marijuana (the unprocessed “weed” form which is referred to in Egypt as “bango”) is used to treat gastric ulcers,” refuting what was written in the statement. Twitter users showed their disgust of the “roll” accusation as it sparked Khalid Said's autopsy results that revealed just the same pre #jan25. They started a #lofafa (roll) hashtag, which referred to the Ministry of Interior as the Ministry of “Lofafa.” @LoaiNagati sarcastically tweeted an inspiring Ghandi quote by saying: “Be the #lofafa you want the world to see.” #MotazAnwar, the resurrected regime's victim #2: #EssamAtta‘s deceased body and family were not the only ones suffering from agony and torment. A new victim appeared with the name Motaz Anwar, a wealthy 21-year-old resident in Sheikh Zayed district in 6of October city, who was shot by two policemen five times after Motaz's attempts to drive away from a checkpoint on the road. Investigations and a forensics report was a surprise to everyone when it revealed that the bullets were shot towards the car's front, with the two police officers then removing the car's number tag to give their shooting a legal and explained act. They immediately took Motaz's body to Sheikh Zayed Private Hospital after they saw onlookers approaching; they then fled. After the police organization's collapse on #jan25, they have been trying to gain the public's approval ever since. However, their recent acts and refusal to understand that the revolution was not only targeting the tyrants, but also targeting the corrupted and disgusted tactics residing inside of them, chooses to show otherwise. It was outrageous to the Egyptian public when Ilan Grapel, an alleged American-Israeli spy who was once detained then exchanged for Egyptian prisoners in Israel, revealed that he was treated very well and wasn't subjected to any torture. A “fair” prison privilege that isn't offered to any normal Egyptian citizen post #jan25. Questions remained in every Egyptian's mind: “When am I ever going to feel safe? When will I be given the privilege to move around without feeling interrogated by a police officer around the area? When will I be respected in a country that I am still willing to die for?” ** Menna Alaa can be found on Twitter: @TheMiinz BM
