Leaked video indicates torture in Gharbiya police station

A video was leaked on Tuesday allegedly showing the torture of four detainees inside Basion police station in Gharbiya governorate, north of Cairo.

The video, which stirred outrage among social media users, appears to have been shot by one of the policemen present during the incident.

Four detainees were seemingly stripped naked and forced to face the wall after they purportedly complained about maltreatment by one of the officers.

The policemen in the video used profane language against the victims, beating them on their backs, questioning their manhood and threatening them with solitary confinement if they complained about torture. One of them begged the person filming to do whatever they wanted to but not record it.

While the original source of the video couldn’t be verified by Mada Masr, text overlaid on the footage reveals some names of the officers involved — Kareem and Abdel Wahab.

Head of the Human Rights Administration at Gharbiya Security Directorate denied any use of torture or cruelty against detainees at Basion police station, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported. 

In August, the Arab Penal Reform Organization won a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior in Egyptian courts. The ministry was compelled to pay LE403,000 to 16 torture victims who were political prisoners under the administration of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Despite Egypt being a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture, and repeated denials by the Ministry of Interior, torture inside Egyptian detention facilities is often alleged. Testimonies of political prisoners have frequently caused outrage among local and international human rights organizations.

Article 52 of Egypt’s new constitution forbids torture of any form without a statute of limitations.