CAIRO: Three human rights organizations demanded an official police investigation into the alleged assault of Kamal Murad, a journalist at the opposition newspaper Al-Fajr. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the Arab Council for the Support of a Fair Trial and the Hisham Mubarak Law Center submitted a petition to the deputy minister of interior affairs on June 21, calling for an inquest into Murad's alleged torture by police officers, according to a press release by ANHRI. Three police officers in Beheira physically and verbally abused Murad, said the statement, and confiscated his notes and mobile phone memory card. He was then arrested on charges of attacking police officers and inciting peasants against the security forces, said the ANHRI. The incident reportedly follows Murad's exposure of an influence-peddling case involving a local trader and his two sons who are police officers. In his investigation, Murad has interviewed peasants in Ezbat Moharram in Beheira and shot pictures of police officers beating peasants in order to force them to sign lease contracts with a landlord, the rights group said. The officers were allegedly doing this as a favor to their fellow policeman whose father happens to be the landlord. The human rights organizations believe that this is revenge against Murad who played a key role in a recent torture case in which a police officer in Beheira was sentenced to three years in prison. The police brutality against Kamal Murad reaffirms their motivation to take revenge against a brave journalist, who revealed a major torture case in Egypt and succeeded in cooperating with Egyptian bloggers to bring the perpetrator, police officer Islam Nabih, to justice, said Gamal Eid, executive director of ANHRI. Abd Al-Gawad Ahmed, advocate and director of the Arab Council for the Support of a Fair Trial, submitted a petition to the deputy general, which included accusations made by Murad and the three rights organizations against each of the three officers: Mohamed Badrawy, Amr Allam and Mohamed Basiouni. "The ball is in the Interior Minister s court now. He must turn his written declaration about ending torture into obligatory decisions to deter perpetrators from crossing the line, he added. Murad was released by the prosecutor s office. However, police officers still have his mobile memory card, which contains photos of the officers assaulting the peasants and taking bribes from the landlord, and his notes, which include transcripts of the interviews he conducted with the peasants.
