The family of Mustafa Attiya al-Sayyed, 39, have accused Alexandrian policemen of murdering their son by dragging him along one of the city's streets for several kilometers. Al-Sayyed's family claims he was tortured by officers from Mena al-Basal police department after they apprehended him on Tuesday in western Alexandria. Security sources said police began searching for al-Sayyed due to loan delinquency charges. His family, however, says al-Sayyed previously paid his debt back to the bank. The sources dismissed torture claims, saying al-Sayyed died naturally. Rights groups urged the general prosecutor to launch transparent investigations into the incident in order to identify the cause of death and prosecute those responsible. The Dahaya Center for Human Rights expressed fear that the city could be turning into a police torture hub in Egypt, while a statement by the Shehab Center for Human Rights decried what it described as police "thuggery and barbarism" against citizens. An Egyptian court is already considering the case of Khaled Saeed, a young man who was killed this June by two police agents, according to Saeed's family and rights groups. Photos of Saeed's corpse, showing his smashed jaw and drooping lips, became ubiquitous on internet websites. Saeed's case fueled a wide-scale controversy in Egypt as opposition and rights groups demanded that those responsible for his death be put on trial. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights believes torture has become common inside Egyptian police stations, and notes that some incidents even occur during daytime and in the middle of streets--“an obvious violation of citizens' dignity and the freedom granted by the Constitution and international human rights declarations.”
