Three people die in police custody within 24 hours

Three people died in police custody on Saturday, two of them at Manshiya Police Station in Alexandria, according to lawyer Mohamed Ramadan, and the third at Shubra al-Kheima Second Station in Qalyubiya, his brother said.

The deaths came just days after another person was beaten to death by other inmates in Haram police station.

In the period leading up to his death in an overcrowded and overheated cell at Manshiya station, Mohamed Ahmed Saad, known as Al-Sawy, had developed a dangerously high fever, Ramadan told Mada Masr. 

As his condition deteriorated, fellow detainees pleaded with the authorities to transfer him to hospital, but their requests were dismissed. Only after persistent urging was he taken to Ras al-Tin General Hospital, then returned to custody. The same series of events was repeated a second time despite a deterioration in Al-Sawy’s health condition, and he later died in detention.

His condition required hospitalization, Ramadan said, but “the Interior Ministry is always reluctant when it comes to hospitalization because it requires posting guards at the hospital. So they bring them back to the station.”

The second victim in Manshiya station — Ramadan al-Sayyed Hassan, known as Islam — had been arrested in place of his brother, who was wanted in a fraud case involving members of a family with political and parliamentary weight in Alexandria, a source close to Islam’s family told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. Police “took Islam and tortured him to extract information about his brother’s whereabouts, until he died under torture.”

In Qalyubiya, the family of Walid Ahmed Taha, a bank employee, were notified of his death in custody at Shubra al-Kheima police station. Taha had no prior medical conditions. 

In a Facebook post on Saturday, his brother said Taha had been held for eight days after a dispute with a neighbor escalated. The neighbor fired a gun at him, leading police to file a report. 

Taha was later pressured to drop the case because the neighbor’s brother is an officer at the station, his brother said. When he refused, Taha was remanded in custody for an initial four days, later extended to 15, during which his family was denied visits. On the eighth day of his detention, they were informed of his death.

The family attempted to file a report citing suspicion of criminal offense in causing his death, but police refused, the brother wrote.

News of the three latest deaths surfaced on the same day the Interior Ministry denied that a detainee had died from torture in custody days earlier, following reports on social media that Wael Youssef Khairy Beshara, known as Kirollos, had been beaten to death by other inmates at Haram police station. 

The ministry said the man fell ill after being assaulted in a fight that broke out on August 13, without comment on the police’s role in protecting people in its custody. 

The Egyptian Network for Human Rights said Kirollos had been held pending investigation after his arrest on August 6 on the basis of in-absentia convictions. 

Kirollos and four of his relatives were charged with fraud according to media reports on Thursday that cited the family’s lawyer. The prosecution ordered Kirollos held for four days, while issuing arrest warrants for the others.

On Monday, the family learned Kirollos had failed to appear in a scheduled detention renewal hearing via video conference. Two days later, they were informed of his death at the hands of five fellow detainees. The family lawyer said those detainees had previously contacted the family demanding money transfers in exchange for sparing him further abuse. The prosecution has since summoned the five men for questioning.

ENHR described Haram police station as one of the worst detention sites in Giza, citing systematic torture, extreme overcrowding, harsh and unlawful conditions and the absence of prosecutorial oversight.