As Egypt cracks down, charges of wide abuse
Regular reports of torture and police abuse are fueling protests across the country.
from the October 10, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
On Aug. 8, about 10 officers from the Amraniyah police station broke into the family's home, tied up Ghad and another brother of Nasser's, and tossed Nasser headfirst to his death from the family's third-story balcony while his 9-year-old son and his wife watched, according to a recounting of the incident by Ghad.
The family's neighbors quickly gathered to attack the police, smashing the windows of some of their cars before the police were able to flee.
Now, says Ghad, the other witness to the initial robbery says he's afraid to testify. The prosecutor in Giza hasn't yet decided if charges will be pressed over Gadallah's death, and some of his brother's alleged killers continue to work openly at the police station, according to Ghad.
"Obviously, most Egyptians are afraid to speak out against things like this," says Ghad. "But for us, nothing will satisfy us but justice. People need to know that the police act like a mafia run out of the interior ministry."
Today, his sister-in-law and her 9-year-old son spend a few days a week with Nadim Center therapists trying to work through the trauma. On a typical day there, the waiting room is full of patients, about half Egyptians, the rest refugees from Sudan and other parts of Africa who suffered abuse home before fleeing to Cairo.
The Egyptian government says police abuse and torture here are isolated incidents and that the guilty are prosecuted. In an interview with a local newspaper earlier this year, Gen. Ahmed Dia el-Din, an assistant to the interior minister, accused the media of sensationalizing police abuses to stir up opposition to the government.
Those words have been followed in recent months by efforts to silence those who complain. In September, the government closed the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid after it helped bring a case against the government over a political activist, Mohammed al-Sayyed, who died in police custody.
Last week, the government arrested two political activists – Mohammed al-Dereini and Ahmed Mohammed Sobh, both members of Egypt's tiny Shiite minority – following their recent efforts to expose torture in the Egyptian prison system. Mr. Dereini's 2006 book, "Hell's Capital," chronicles torture in Egyptian prisons and includes firsthand accounts from his time in jail in 2004-2005.
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