Got back to Cairo on last night’s red-eye, dragged myself into the office a little bleary eyed this morning. Made a cup of coffee and wandered out onto the balcony to see what the world was getting up to.
Yep, seems he had a disagreement with an officer (the one bending over him, having just kicked him) so he and a few friends dragged him behind the 4X4 (this is quite close to a big tourist hotel and within sight of the US Embassy) and punched and kicked him for a while. After they were done smacking the guy around, the officer smoked a cigarette and one of the boys in black brought him a bottle of water.
Welcome to Egypt—don’t forget your camera!
Are such incidents more frequent &/or open than in the 90s, or are there just more channels available for exposing them?
More channels. In the 90s there was a dirty war being waged against Islamists, and they didn’t care how many innocents they killed/tortured/jailed in their hunt.
Sort of. According to the folks in the anti-torture business in Egypt it is more in the open now than in the 90s. Of course there was a dirty war against the Islamists then, but what has happened since is that officers trained to pull out fingernails and and pound people have shifted those tactics to the general population. Most say there is more more open and obvious police enthusiasm against the average citizen than there was in the previous decade.
Paul, yes, that is what I was wondering. Thanks for both your answers, and I shall keep reading