6 police referred to court for death of detainee in 2012 torture case

Six policemen were referred to court on Thursday for torturing a man who was wrongfully imprisoned to death in late 2012, Al-Haqanya Foundation of Rights and Freedoms reported.

The case against two police officers and four conscripts from Giza police station was dismissed three times before the prosecution officially made the referral to court. 

Saad Saeed, a 25-year-old accountant from Moneib district of Giza was wrongfully arrested in December 2012, when a suspect escaped a police raid through his home. Saeed became involved in an altercation with a police officer who attempted to assault his father, according to Al-Haqanya.

Saeed was later arrested and taken into custody at Giza police station, where he was severely beaten and referred to prosecution. Despite the prosecution’s subsequent referral to forensics to check Saeed’s injuries, police refused to transfer him. Saeed died in police custody a day after his arrest, according to a statement by the National Committee to Defend Rights and Freedoms.

There has been a spate of high profile torture cases in police custody over the last few years, with various incidents in which citizens have died in police stations or during altercations with police personnel.

A policeman was referred to court in February this year for shooting driver Mohamed Sayed to death in Darb al-Ahmar district in Cairo following a dispute over compensation. The driver’s death provoked widespread anger in the neighborhood and protests against police brutality.  

Police assaulted two doctors at Matareya Hospital who refused to falsify medical reports for them in January, prompting a nationwide doctors strike and ongoing demands by the Doctors Syndicate for greater protection for medical staff.

Four police officers and five low-ranking personnel were sent to trial for torturing Talaat Shabeeb to death in November 2015 in the southern city of Luxor, spurring a wave of angry protests. Similar protests also erupted in the canal city of Ismailia in the same month, when a police officer allegedly beat doctor Afify Hosny to death after storming his pharmacy.

Two police officers were sentenced to five years in prison in December 2015 after they were found guilty of torturing lawyer Karim Hamdy to death in Matareya police station in 2014.

The Interior Ministry denies a systemic issue of torture, placing the blame for violations on rogue officers. An Alexandria court ruled in January that individual police officers not the ministry are responsible for compensating torture victims.