CAIRO: Human rights activist Aida Seif al-Dowla said on Tuesday that Egypt's ministry of the interior bears full responsibility for the death in unclear circumstances of Essam Atta at Qasr el-Aini hospital last Thursday. Speaking at a press conference held by the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, Seif al-Dowla called for a neutral investigation into the death of Atta, who was serving a two-year sentence imposed by a military court at Tora High Security Prison. Meanwhile, three human rights organizations including the Nadeem Centre issued a statement on Monday, also assigning blame to the Minister for the Interior, the head of the prison service and the director of Tora prison. The Nadeem Center, the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights and the Tahrir Doctors Organization called for a full and “transparent investigation by the public prosecutor's office,” pointing to the discrepancies between Atta family's account and the Ministry of the Interior's statement, which claimed that Atta had been treated by the prison doctor for suspected blood poisoning before being transferred to Qasr El-Aini hospital where he died due to “poisoning with an unknown substance.” Seif al-Dowla emphasized that her organization was publicizing the case at this early stage, before a final forensic report had been published, because of the many “unclear aspects” of Atta's death. His family claimed he had been tortured over a two day period by a prison officer who beat him and forced liquid into his mouth and anus through a tube. By contrast, Ahmad Syiam from the Doctors of the Revolutionary Youth, who attended the autopsy apparently at the request of a friend from the Tahrir Doctors Organization, has stated on his blog that there were no signs of torture or of any tubes having been inserted into the body, but that a foreign body consisting of two fingers of a latex glove containing a dark substance and what appeared to be pills were found in the stomach. Seif al-Dowla stated that she had seen the foreign body after the autopsy and it did not appear to be part of a latex glove, and was clean, apart from a few drops of blood. Seif al-Dowla said that further confusion surrounded Atta's transfer to Qasr El-Aini hospital. Witnesses from inside the prison claimed that he was already dead when he was transferred to the hospital, while doctors in the poisons department at the hospital said he had died 30 minutes after his arrival in the department. The hospital itself had had no official record of his admission until Saturday. Seif al-Dowla claimed that the Nadeem Center has witnesses who would be prepared to testify, but only if the case is brought to court. Seif al-Dowla also criticized the conduct of the autopsy. The family had not been allowed to attend nor had she been allowed to attend on their behalf, despite the case of Khalid Said, murdered by police in Alexandria in 2010, serving as a precedent for the admission of family members. She said that a police officer was, however, allowed enter during the autopsy. Syiami, by contrast, on his blog, praised the professional conduct of the doctors carrying out the autopsy and said they had cooperated fully with him and with the family of the deceased, reserving his criticisms for Seif al-Dowla whom he accused of “setting out to create problems,” and for the doctor who had treated Atta without diagnosing the presence of a foreign body in his stomach. Seif al-Dowla criticized the facilities available for the autopsy in Qasr El-Aini hospital, saying that a properly equipped autopsy room could be set up in any of Cairo's major hospitals, and if necessary fitted with video cameras to ensure the transparency of forensic investigations. She expressed her support for striking forensic practitioners who are calling for independence and improved facilities. The statement from the three human rights organizations also called for institutional reform, including the establishment of an independent commission to receive and supervise complaints against police officers and investigate deaths in custody. They called for human rights and civil society organizations to be allowed visit all prisons and police stations and interview the inmates “as a preventative measure.” The Atta case has brought the spotlight back on to the issue of torture and deaths in custody in Egypt. Seif al-Dowla, speaking to Bikyamasr.com after the press conference, felt there was some progress in public opinion. “It took a long time for people to accept [the problem of] police torture, we thought that it would take a long time for people to accept the fact that military torture takes place, but it's happening faster than we thought,” she said. But, she says, ultimately what is needed is “a political decision to stop torture, to acknowledge that torture happens, to bring … the perpetrators to justice, and to open places of detention for supervision of the prosecution, of civil society organizations, to follow the standards of how people should be imprisoned… we have to have access.” And, she added, “the revolution has to be completed before this can be dealt with. We are not in a transitional period, we are under military rule.” BM
