By Middle East Monitor
West Cairo prosecution has accused a police officer and nine non-commissioned officers from Al-Amiriah Police Station of “torturing to death” charges, in relation to the death of the 50-year street vendor Magdy Makeen in custody, a judicial source said on Sunday.
The source added that the prosecution has ordered the detention of the police officer, Karim Magdy, and four of the enlisted officers for four days pending investigations. They also face charges of forging reports and using force against two other men held with Makeen at the police station, according to Reuters
The six other policemen were released on a 3,000 Egyptian pound ($160) bail.
Makeen was allegedly tortured by about 10 police officers in the station after he was arrested on 13 November, while driving a cart with two of his friends. His family found out about his death on 14 November and decided to transfer the body to Al-Zaytoun hospital, where they found signs of assault and torture on his body.
Many photos purported to be of Makeen’s body baring signs torture on his legs and face were circulated on various social media outlets.
Makeen’s lawyer, Ali Al-Halawany said that the extent of the involvement of each of the defendants is still to be determined, Egypt’s Mada Masr reported.
Al-Halawany has noted that the public prosecution accusations came following the victim’s forensic report which showed that he had been subjected to torture which led to his death.
The forensic report has stated that he died as a result of one or more people standing on his back, leading to a nervous disruption in the medulla and subsequent clotting in the lungs. Bruises were also found on his body. The report’s results coincided with the narrative of Makeen’s colleagues who testified that he was beaten and killed by the officers.
On Sunday, the Interior Ministry suspended the four detained policemen from duty pending the completion of investigations, a security source said.
During the investigations, the officers have denied the charges asserting they had arrested Makeen and two others after a police chase, and subsequently found 2,000 Tramadol pills in their possession, according to state media. They will be called for questioning by the prosecution on Thursday.
Interior ministry spokesperson Tarek Atteya has claimed that Makeen died because of a sharp drop in blood pressure, after he and two others were arrested in possession of a large number of pills.
Other different and contradictory narratives about the incident had been claimed by Atteya, including that Makeen fainted in the police station and died while he was being transferred to the hospital, while another stated that he died when he crashed his cart while he was being chased by the police. It was also claimed that Makeen was in possession of narcotics.
Makeen’s son Malak told reporters in a previous interview that his father was arrested with two of his friends after a traffic argument with a police officer. The other men with Makeen told his family they were held separately from him in the police station, but could hear his screams, which eventually stopped. This is when they were approached by Magdy and urged to confess to possession of the pills to secure their release, which they refused.
Both men said they were beaten and that Makeen was tortured to death in their witness accounts, lawyer Halawany said, adding that this was supported by a medical report., according to Mada Masr.
Various rights groups say police brutality is widespread in Egypt, enabled by a culture of impunity, and a string of incidents have triggered protests and riots in the past year. Anger at police was also major factor in setting off the 2011 uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, Reuters reported.
There has been a string of cases of police abuse directed against civilians since the start of 2016. Cases of death in detention are handled in secrecy by security forces and the prosecution. The ministry does not release public statements about such violations, and if it does, it denies them.
Egypt Independent quoted President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi last December saying that “individual” incidents of detainee torture by police should not be generalized as an Interior Ministry policy, in an apparent defence of the police service against a recent surge of accusations of deadly torture of citizens.
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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20161219-egyptian-police-tortured-man-to-death-prosecutor/