HRW sheds light on torture of Morsi-era advisor

A report by Human Rights Watch called on Egyptian judicial authorities to investigate torture allegations against a Morsi-era economic advisor and his brother, who have been detained since November.

Abdallah Shehata and his brother were arrested on November 28, 2014 amid a wider crackdown aimed at confronting the so-called “Islamist revolution” protests announced by the Salafi Front.

In 2013, Shehata, a university professor and member of the Freedom and Justice Party, was appointed by then-Finance Minister Morsy Hegazy to lead negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

HRW cited Ezzat Ghoniem, Shehata’s lawyer, who said the police raided Shehata’s house and took him, his wife and 17-year-old son, “but then dumped the wife and the kid on the way to the detention center, saying they didn’t need them anymore.”

In December, the Interior Ministry said in a video statement that they had arrested 102 Muslim Brotherhood members, including Shehata, and found explosives and other materials used to manufacture bombs in his possession. Shehata himself appears in the video confessing to carrying these materials.

Ghoneim said that Shehata and his brother were electrocuted and tortured by National Security officers in order to elicit confessions of weapons possession and other violence-related charges. The lawyer attempted to file a complaint with the general prosecutor over the allegations but to no avail, HRW said.

“Government silence over reports that police electrocuted a university professor shows how far off course Egypt has drifted since the Arab Spring,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “While Egypt faces real security threats, the authorities are responding with methods that aggravate people’s grievances. The 2011 uprising was triggered in part by pervasive police brutality.”

HRW also references Shehata’s younger brother Mohamed, who said that Shehata was held in an isolation cell with another inmate in Tora Prison, where they both slept on the floor. Ghoneim added that Shehata was denied medical help for his lung and skin conditions, which he developed in prison.

In its report, HRW points to other incidents of torture in detention over the past two years. It cites a report by the United Group, an independent Egyptian human rights law firm, issued in January, which interviewed 465 alleged victims of police torture and filed 163 complaints to prosecutors, of which only seven have reached the courts.

“Torture of detainees in Egypt is not a simple exception, but one of many human rights abuses in a climate of impunity,” Houry said. “Sisi should end the rampant impunity of police, and not make weak statements of disapproval that actually reinforce the sense that abuses are justified or tolerated.”