CAIRO: An Egyptian blogger reported on Saturday a second murder this year at Alexandria's Sidi Gabr police station. The Egyptian Chronicles blog said that Ahmed Shabaan, 19, was tortured to death by police at the same station that was responsible for Khaled Said's death earlier this year. Said's death sparked widespread anger from Egypt's burgeoning online activists and saw a number of protests in Alexandria for the slain activist. “Ahmed's family and friends said that Ahmed was tortured till death at the Sidi Gabr police station and that for fear of accountability the police agents dumped his body in Al Mahmoudia lake,” wrote the report on the blog. The interior ministry refused to comment on the case when contacted by Bikya Masr on Monday. According to Egyptian Chronicles, Shabaan's death is being officially ruled as a suicide. The family held a funeral for the 19-year-old over the weekend and police presence was high in order to calm the situation. Details of why Shabaan was being held at the police station are unclear and despite the report from the blogger, there does not appear to be hard evidence directly linking the death of Shabaan to the police, although his family has said their son had been arrested by police and taken to the Sidi Gabr police station. Mohamed el-Gamal, an activist in Alexandria, told Bikya Masr that “there is no doubt in my mind that Ahmed was taken to the police station and beaten over and over by officers. “When they killed him, they took the body out to the lake and dumped it so as to make it look like he killed himself,” added Gamal. Already, the case appears to be heading in an almost identical manner as Said's murder, where police denied they were responsible for the young man's death, despite eyewitness accounts of the attack. Police reports argue that the young man died after choking on a bag of drugs. Activists and observers tell a much different story. The initial investigation by prosecutors brought two witnesses, provided by the police, who claimed that Khaled Said swallowed a packet of drugs when he saw the policemen. One of the prosecutors ordered a medical examination which proved that Said died of asphyxiation. Further, the Ministry of Interior released a statement in which it was claimed that Said was a wanted criminal with two convictions in absentia; however, his family denied this and eyewitnesses told the media that he was murdered by police. Attorney-General Abdel Magid Mahmoud ordered the investigation to be re-opened and appointed a committee of three doctors to conduct a new forensic investigation. Their report confirmed that the cause of death was asphyxiation and the injuries on his body were a result of the beatings during arrest. “Witness accounts and the photographs of Khaled Said's mangled face constitute strong evidence that plainclothes security officers beat him in a vicious and public manner,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “All those involved should be speedily interrogated, and the prosecutor should fully investigate what caused the fractures and trauma clearly evident on his body.” Photos of Said's battered and deformed face published on the internet show a fractured skull, dislocated jaw, broken nose, and numerous other signs of trauma. Khaled's brother, Ahmed Said, confirmed the authenticity of the pictures to Human Rights Watch. Nine witnesses came forward to describe the beating. BM
