Egypt-rights-Internet-torture-trial,sched-FEATURE
Egypt bloggers reveal new torture case
by Paul SchemmCAIRO, Feb 1, 2007 (AFP) – Egypt’s politically active blogger community has brought to light another torture case against the regime’s security services amid a rising tide of outrage over police brutality.
On Saturday, lawyers from the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid (AHRLA) will go to court in a last-ditch effort to keep alive the case against a state security officer accused of torturing to death a man he arrested three and a half years ago.
The case against Captain Ashraf Safwat is gaining new attention following the decision by Egypt’s activist blogger community to post the details online in the wake of several other cases of police brutality in recent weeks.
“The most significant aspect of the case is this is the first state security officer to truly be put in front of a criminal court,” said Mohsen Bahnasi, a member of AHRLA’s board, referring to the country’s feared plainclothes security service.
Mohammed Abdel Qader and his brother were summoned to a Cairo police station on September 16, 2003 by Safwat. Abdel Qader died five days later and an autopsy gave torture by electric shock combined with a weak heart as the cause of death.
More than three years later, the case continues to drag on, hampered by slow prosecutors, uncooperative security services and now the family’s decision to drop the case and disappear.
In the past few months, however, torture cases have gained new prominence in Egypt as bloggers have posted videos, photos and accounts of brutality in police stations, prompting renewed investigations.
On January 20, Abdel Qader’s case appeared on a blog, featuring excerpts from the forensic report and gruesome autopsy pictures showing the mangled corpse of a heavily bearded man.
“There is evidence of the application of high temperature to the right and left breast and the penis resembling the effects of electrocution with an electric wire,” read an excerpt. “He was subject to those injuries hours before his death.”
“The pictures have done something, because they are visual — it is a shock,” said Aida Seif al-Dawla, a veteran anti-torture activist who credits the bloggers for raising public awareness on the pervasive use of torture by security services.
Hossam el-Hamalawy, on whose Arabawy blog the pictures appear, said it comes as no surprise bloggers should take interest in such cases.
“The bloggers themselves were victims of torture during the past years,” he said, referring to the case of Mohammed al-Sharqawi who was allegedly sodomised after being arrested. “We are receiving so many videos now.”
Bloggers came to public attention during the political ferment surrounding elections in 2005 and then most recently when they posted the grim video of bus driver Imad al-Kabir being sodomised in a police station in 2006 — the first of many such examples of police brutality to be publicised.
Interior Minister Interior Habib al-Adly last week lashed out at the bloggers, condemning the “intentionally unpatriotic campaign striking a national service that seeks stability in the country.”
The campaign strikes at the heart of official assertions that torture is not widespread and limited to individual cases.
“The outcry has encouraged people to come forward in person and take the government at its word that it takes torture seriously and prosecutes it whenever possible,” said Elijah Zarwan of Human Rights Watch.
Proving a torture case in Egypt, he added, is very difficult due to a narrow definition of torture by authorities and lengthy incommunicado detentions during which the marks often fade.
It took seven months for Safwat to answer the subpoena in the current case, and when he did it was with his own autopsy report claiming the burns came from a defibrillator used to revive the victim after a heart attack, indicating he was familiar with the case prior to the trial.
A special committee of experts then took two tries to conduct a new autopsy based on the pictures and available documents which finally concluded that there was torture, opening the way for the trial to begin in June 2006.
The repeated delays, leaking of information to defendants and allowing the suspected officers to remain free during the trial are typical of attempts to bring torture cases against police, said AHRLA president Tariq al-Khater.
“The prosecutors in Egypt are in collusion with the police,” he said.
In November, the officer’s lawyer suddenly produced a paper signed by Abdel Qader’s family withdrawing Khater’s power of attorney and dropping the civil case for damages against the officer.
Khater is convinced that state security pressured the family, which has since disappeared, by threatening their still imprisoned other son, Sameh.
With his case against Safwat threatening to fall to pieces, Khater has taken the unusual step of challenging the family’s decision on the behalf Abdel Qader’s three daughters on the grounds it is against their interests.
On Saturday, the criminal court will decide whether the case proceeds.
This is a press release that has been issued today by the Egyptian human rights NGO.
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Health and Human Rights Program
Press Release- 29 January 2007
Negligence Apparent Cause of Death for Woman Living with HIV
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) today called upon the Ministry of Health to launch an urgent investigation into the death on 25 January of Samia (*), a 33-year-old woman who was living with HIV. According to information received by the EIPR-which has been following her case closely-Samia did not die of AIDS -related illness. Rather, her death apparently resulted from serious negligence and ineptitude and from denial of basic healthcare services at the AIDS ward of the Abbasiya Fevers Hospital in Northern Cairo .
A widow and mother of three, Samia died ten days after admission to the hospital complaining from increasing severe pain in her stomach , headaches and constant vomiting and diarrhea. Throughout her stay at the Abbasiya Hospital, the government health facility designated for care and treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS in Cairo, Samia’s health continued to rapidly deteriorate without sufficient attention or care from the hospital’s medical personnel. According to family members and friends who accompanied Samia during her last days, the AIDS ward of the hospital lacked equipment and medicines and Samia had to buy her own medications from outside pharmacies. She was not receiving enough fluids to keep her hydrated, and the doctors and nurses on call often were unavailable for examination or care. Samia’s adherence to her anti-retroviral treatment was also not monitored during her stay at the hospital. Moreover, the sanitary levels at the ward were dismal – the ward was not being cleaned, the bed sheets were not changed and hot water was not available. Eventually, Samia’s body gave in and her family and friends were told by a hospital doctor that the constant vomiting and diarrhea were the cause of her death.
“We have known Samia for months before her tragic death and she was a strong, resolved woman struggling to raise her three children alone after her husband’s death,” said Dr. Ragia Elgerzawy of EIPR’s Health and Human Rights Program. “We have strong reasons to believe that AIDS did not kill Samia– negligence did.”
Samia had suffered a great ordeal in the months leading to her death. In October 2006, Samia had an ultrasound examination which showed that she had three stones in the gall bladder that needed to be surgically removed. She spent three months trying unsuccessfully to find a doctor or a health facility willing to perform her surgery since many doctors and hospitals refused to admit or operate on her after learning she was living with HIV in violation of medical ethics and without any public health or scientific basis. She and her friends tried several times to enlist the help of the Health Ministry’s National AIDS Program, whose mandate includes improving and facilitating care for people living with HIV and AIDS, which failed to adequately respond to the urgency of the case in a timely fashion. As her clinical condition continued to deteriorate, Samia was forced to resort to a private doctor who performed the surgery on 21 December 2006. She did not disclose her HIV status to the surgeon until immediately before the surgery. She feared that if she had done so earlier she would have been rejected again.
Samia’s story and ordeal are not unique, and the EIPR is greatly concerned that the Egyptian government is not providing people living with HIV and AIDS like Samia with sufficient medical attention and care. Egypt is obliged under national and international law to provide healthcare to all those living under its jurisdiction, including those living with HIV and AIDS. The reality, however, is that people living with HIV and AIDS in Egypt are subject to serious violations of that right.
“Worldwide experiences assert that care for people living with HIV and AIDS is an essential component of an adequate and effective response to the epidemic,” Dr. Elgerzawy added. “An investigation into Samia’s death is needed not just to establish the truth for her family, but also to reveal and remedy the serious flaws in the government’s system of care for people living with HIV and AIDS.
*The name has been changed to protect the privacy of the family.
Also see pages 4-5 of al-Masri al-Youm today for several articles on healthcare on hospitals and the latest on the “Hadliya” blood scandal.
Just saw this on German news.
Amnesty is getting involved in Egyptian blogging.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE120042007
Egypt: Trial of blogger expands realm of repression
Amnesty International today called for the immediate and unconditional release of Karim Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for writing blogs criticizing Egypt’s al-Azhar religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam.
Karim Amer, a former al-Azhar University student and blogger, is facing up to 10 years in prison for his writings in a trial that resumes today. Charges against him include “spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country’s reputation�, “incitement to hate Islam� and “defaming the President of the Republic�.
“Karim Amer’s trial appears intended as a warning by the authorities to other bloggers who dare criticize the government or use their blogs to spread information considered harmful to Egypt’s reputation,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme. “This is particularly worrying as bloggers have increasingly been posting information about human rights abuses in Egypt, including torture and police violence against peaceful protesters.”
The trial opened on 18 January 2007 before Maharram Bek Court in Alexandria. Karim Amer was charged under Articles 102, 176 and 179 of Egypt’s Penal Code. Amnesty International has been urging the Egyptian authorities to review or abolish this and other legislation that, in violation of international standards, stipulates prison sentences for the mere exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion.
“Amnesty International considers Karim Amer to be a prisoner of conscience who is being prosecuted on account of the peaceful expression of his views about Islam and the al-Azhar religious authorities. We are calling for his immediate and unconditional release.”
etc. (for the rest see link above)