2 police officers sentenced to 5 years for torturing lawyer to death

Cairo Criminal Court sentenced two National Security officers to five years in prison on Saturday for torturing lawyer Karim Hamdy to death, the Reuters-affiliated Aswat Masreya website reported.

Hamdy was tortured in Matareya police station earlier this year, and autopsy reports proved he was severely beaten, reportedly to force a confession of belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

Hamdy’s death sparked a wave of anger among lawyers and the human rights community, who perceived his death as a sign of increasing police brutality.

Torture and the deaths of citizens in detention facilities have put the Interior Ministry in the hot seat recently. Four police officers and five low-ranking officers were sent to trial for torturing citizen Talaat Shabeeb to death in the southern city of Luxor. The decision came following a wave of angry protests by Luxor citizens.

Similar protests also erupted in the canal city of Ismailia, when a police officer allegedly beat doctor Afify Hosny to death after storming his pharmacy, as shown by footage from a camera.

A group of human rights organizations criticized police practices in a conference on Thursday. A report issued by the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture documented 49 cases of torture in detention facilities in November alone. In nine of these cases, the victims were tortured to death.

Such reports suggest the Interior Ministry has been given the green light “to harass civilians through illegal practices including torture, forced disappearances and other repressive measures, and systematic violations against basic rights and freedoms of citizens,” the statement asserted.

At the press conference, which was co-coordinated by the Journalists Syndicate, the rights groups presented a number of recommendations to the government concerning torture, arbitrary detention and the murder of detainees.

The press conference was a response to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s insistence that incidents of torture in police stations are isolated acts committed by individuals, and do not represent state policies. In a speech at the Police Academy last week, Sisi praised the performance of security forces and said the police play a crucial role in ensuring the stability of the country.

Sisi warned against blaming the security apparatus as a whole, claiming, “There are 300 police stations across Egypt, and violations only occur in one or two.”