The Cairo-base Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) this week requested that the Attorney General investigate the death of 44-year-old Fadl Hussein. According to relatives who filed a complaint with the organization, Hussein had been tortured to death inside Minya's Deir Mowas police station. According to allegations listed in the complaint, Hussein was arrested without warrant in front of his house and taken to the police station, where he was beaten to death by police officers. When relatives saw him in hospital, they say that his face was covered in bruises. In a statement issued Tuesday, the EOHR condemned the prevalence of torture in Egypt, noting that punishments for police torture as stipulated by Egyptian law were "ridiculously" light. The statement went on to urge members of parliament to discuss a draft law submitted by the EOHR in 2003 calling for severer punishments for torture in conformity with the UN Convention Against Torture, to which Egypt is signatory. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
