The death of a prisoner from alleged police brutality reminded the public of a similar troubling incident, Reem Leila reports A preliminary investigation into the death of an inmate being held in Tora Prison has shown that he was poisoned. According to a report issued by three doctors from the Poison Centre in Manial Hospital who were assigned by Prosecutor-General Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud to conduct an autopsy on Essam Ali Atta, 23, there were no signs of bodily injuries which might have indicated torture when Atta was found dead in the early morning of 27 October. However, Atta's father is accusing prison guards of torturing his son to death, by pushing a hose into his mouth and anus and pumping soapy water into him for two successive days. The report, which said there were no signs of injures surrounding his mouth or anus, confirmed that Atta was poisoned after remnants of cannabis in his stomach were found. After the official autopsy Atta's body was taken from Zeinhom morgue to Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square on 28 October. Dozens of angry protesters joined the funeral with Atta's family, vowing he would not die in vain and chanting against the Ministry of Interior as well as the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Atta was buried in Al-Basateen cemetery. Two doctors from the Tahrir Doctors Organisation (TDO) attended the autopsy. The organisation is a group of independent doctors who provided on-site medical treatment to protesters during the January uprising. Mohamed Fattouh, head of TDO, said doctors who attended the autopsy, neither confirmed nor denied that Atta was tortured to death. "They were just describing what they saw," said Fattouh. According to a press release issued by TDO, there were no signs of violence on Atta's body except for a bruise on the right side of the chest. "There was neither external nor internal bleeding," said Fattouh. The statement said the autopsy found two surgical glove fingers stuffed with two kinds of drugs inside his body, one of which was two centimetres wide and five centimetres long. It was filled with cannabis. They added that the encapsulated latex roll contained a "substance that resembles hashish and six to nine liquidated pills" inside the stomach. "This is another Khaled Said case. Can anybody on earth swallow something that big?" asked Malek Adli, lawyer of Atta's family. Said was the young activist whose death in 2010 sparked protests and an Internet campaign credited with helping to launch the popular uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak. An Egyptian court last week sentenced two policemen to seven years in prison for killing Said. The two claimed Said had choked on a package of drugs he tried to swallow as they approached. The court charged the two policemen of manslaughter and sentenced them to seven years in prison, a ruling which activists and lawyers described as too lenient. Adli, who practises in the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, said TDO doctors did not take the family's permission to attend the autopsy. "I do not trust the autopsy, and as the family's lawyer I will ask for another autopsy on Atta's body to identify the real cause of his death inside Tora Prison. The way Atta was tortured does not necessarily leave bruise marks on the body," Adli argued. Adli criticised the TDO doctors' observations, "There should have been a family member attending the autopsy but none of them were allowed inside." He said it was illegal for a police officer to attend the autopsy. "I will file a complaint to the prosecutor-general," Adli added. Fattouh disagreed with Adli saying that according to autopsy regulations only forensic doctors are allowed to attend the procedure. In addition, "only one member of the victim's relatives is allowed in exceptional circumstances, but in this case Atta's uncle refused to attend," Fattouh said. However, Atta's father was turned down despite repeated requests to attend. The father was eventually admitted towards the end of the procedure. At the same time, Hafez Abu Seada, head of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) compared Atta's case to that of Said after doctors found a "wrap" which they reportedly found inside Atta's stomach. Abu Seada said the morgue lacked basic equipment for a proper autopsy. "Microscopic samples were needed and, if properly preserved, the cause of Atta's death could have been accurately determined later. However, the samples were not taken. Doctors were lax, saying that since it was Friday [an off day] they were unable to conduct all the tests." According to Atta's father, Atta was tortured upon instructions from a police officer in the prison. "Atta's mother visited him on 25 October and smuggled in a SIM card which he gave to another prisoner. There was a third prisoner who saw what happened and told a jail officer that my son had swallowed a wrap of cannabis," said the father. The family said they received a phone call from their son a day before he died, telling them that he was afraid of prison officers. "He asked me to file a complaint to the prosecutor, but his cellmates called and told me not to, or else my son will die," Atta's father said. The father stated that his son was initially arrested for asking a military officer why he was arresting his friend while both of them were watching a fight in Moqattam. He was then tried in a military court. According to Abu Seada, more than 12,000 civilians have been tried in military courts since the 25 January Revolution. "For months we have been calling on the SCAF to try civilians in civil courts, not military courts which are only for army and police officers but there was no response," Abu Seada said. A Facebook page called "We are all Essam Atta" appeared online on 27 October and the number of its members is swiftly increasing.
