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Stop torture
To whom the matter concerns…Torture
in Haram police station
A report by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
17/3/200
Introduction
Torture in Egypt is an enduring phenomenon. It is even possible to say that torture inside police stations and detention centres has become routine practice; an investigation and evidence gathering tool. The cases monitored and documented by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) over the past fifteen years demonstrate that police officers consider it the best means of obtaining confessions and gathering evidence. In addition to this it is at times used as a means of punishing or terrifying people.
The Egyptian legislative structure remains a fertile breeding ground for torture because it protects the perpetrators of torture - either they escape punishment altogether or receive punishment which does not correspond to the gravity of their crimes. The absence of public accountability and transparency has led to an atmosphere developing in which criminals feel they are immune from punishment.
In this report we describe the torture of a man inside Haram police station. This case provides a clear example of how the legislative structure provides legal immunity for perpetrators of torture in Egypt.
Despite the fact that the victim presented evidence of his torture to the public prosecution office, this case fell outside the sphere of torture as defined in Egyptian legislation because it was not carried out in order to force him to confess (as stipulated by article 126 of the Penal Code.)
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"I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't do anything wrong!" This is what the 31 year old man kept repeating to the EOHR lawyer and district attorney during investigations into his case. "I asked them: why am I being beaten?! It was like they weren't dealing with a human being…not even an animal… it was like I was a piece of dirt they were kicking."
"They punished me because I asked about my shoe. They don't know where my mother got it from. I told them, what are you doing, it's a sin. I'm from the Said [upper Egypt] and if my family find out what you're doing to me they might kill me."
Facts
On the 21st February 2005 a woman in her forties arrived at EOHR shouting "help me! My son is being held in Haram police station, and when I went there yesterday at 6 o'clock in the evening to visit him I found him really ill. His face and body was covered in injuries and he couldn't talk, and he told me that the investigations in the police station hit him and tortured him. He said to me: 'Help me mum! Tell the public prosecution office. He gave me his clothes and his underwear was covered in blood. I left and came to you right away."
After she had collected herself, she proceeded to tell EOHR that her son Khaled was being detained in Haram police station because he had received an in absentia three year prison sentence.
"He was arrested on the 9/2/2005 by members of the sentence enforcement division. After that we found out that he had been sentenced to three years imprisonment and a 5,000 LE find. He then went to re-do the procedures for the in absentia sentence and a trial was fixed for the 5/3/2005. Today, when I went to visit him as usual in the police station to give him food and see if he needs anything and find out when they would let him out, I found him in pieces, injured and his clothes filled with blood. He wasn't able to talk…All that he could say was that the investigations officers hit him. I was shocked, and asked him, why would they hit you son? Have you done something wrong? He said to me, 'honestly I haven't. All that I did was put the shoes that you brought me under my head to sleep on, and when I woke up I didn't find them so I asked about them. Some investigation officers called Amr Abdel Latif, Mohamed Lashin, Islam al Waraqy and Mohamed Rabia called for me and said to me why are you making a fuss in the cells? So I told them about the shoes and they started hitting me. I asked them why are you hitting me? Have I done anything wrong? Then they took off my clothes and made me sit on the floor and put my hands and feet in cuffs. They made me lay face down while I was completely naked and brought a piece of wood and put it inside me. I kept telling them "Shame on you! I haven't done anything! What are you doing, shame on you. I'm from the Said, and if my family find out they might kill me. Shame on you! And they considered me a piece of dirt, not a human being.'"
The mother's, or rather Khaled's testimony via his mother ended here. She was in a state of extreme stress, and EOHR began the necessary procedures to investigate the complaint.
- Lawyers from the Fieldwork Unit prepared a complaint for the attorney general and head of Haram prosecution office stating the following:
On the 9/2/2005 Khaled Abdel Rahim Sadiq was arrested by members of the Haram police station sentence enforcement division in pursuance of an in absentia verdict issued against him of three years imprisonment and a fine of 5,000 LE in a narcotics case. He was held in Haram police station until the procedures surround the re-trial were completed and a trial set for the 5/3/2005.
When his mother went to see him in custody she was shocked to find him in an extreme exhaustion and suffering the following injuries:
- Cut wound to the right eye
- Bruising to various parts of the body
- Inflammation to the right side of the mouth
- His underwear was also torn
Khaled told her that while he was in custody he started looking for his shoes (which she had brought for him). He was shocked when Amr Abdel Latif, Mohamed Lashin, Islam al Waraqy and Mohamed Rabia, investigation officers took him from his cell, assaulted, tortured and sexually abused him, leading to injury.
The next day an EOHR lawyer presented a complaint to the head of Haram prosecution office who began an investigation. He contacted the head of Haram police station and ordered that Khaled be released in order that EOHR's complaint could be investigated. Two EOHR representatives accompanied a prosecution office officer to Haram police station and Khaled was released from custody in implementation of the public prosecution office order. He was taken to Haram prosecution office accompanied by the two EOHR lawyers and an officer from Haram police station.
Hatem Gafar, Haram district attorney, carried out investigation procedures in the presence of Khaled and the two EOHR lawyers. His testimony and the torture he had endured was listened to. He accused the four investigation officers, Abdel Latif, Lashin, al Waraqy and Rabia of causing the injuries obvious on his body.
The district attorney inspected these injuries and recorded them in the investigation report. He took Khaled's underwear, ripped and covered in blood, as evidence.
The district attorney also recorded the EOHR lawyers' requests that an investigation be carried out into the four officers accused of assaulting and sexually abusing Khaled in Haram police station, and that a forensic doctor carry out a medical examination of the victim.
At the conclusion of these initial investigations the district attorney decided to:
1. Send a request, delivered by an officer from the police station, that Khaled be transferred to the forensic doctor's office, in preparation for a forensic examination to establish the nature and cause of his injuries and when they occurred. He also sent Khaled's clothes for examination by the forensic doctor.
2. Record the investigation papers with an official judicial number.
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Legislative shortcomings which lead to those accused of torture escaping justice
Article 42 of the Egyptian Constitution provides:
Any person arrested, detained or his freedom restricted shall be treated in the manner concomitant with the preservation of his dignity. No physical or moral harm is to be inflicted upon him. He may not be detained or imprisoned except in places defined by laws organising prisons. If a confession is proved to have been made by a person under any of the aforementioned forms of duress or coercion, it shall be considered invalid and futile.
The Constitution equally protects civil liberties and freedoms such as the right to bodily integrity, protected by both the Constitution and other legislation. The state, embodied in the executive must not only respect but actively protect these rights and put in place laws which will deter transgression of them.
Because of the importance of these rights and freedoms, the Egyptian Constitution considers any attack on them an act which remains punishable no matter how much time has elapsed. The Penal Code criminalises torture in its articles 126, 129 and 282.
Given that legislative provisions criminalising torture exist, this forces the question, where then, is the problem?
It will be remembered that in the introduction Khaled's case was described as a prime example of how those accused of torture escape justice. Article 126 of the Penal Code stipulates that in order for torture victims to raise a legal case they must have been charged with a crime, the torture must have been inflicted in order to induce a confession and it must have been carried out by a public employee.
In imposing these conditions the legislator has therefore restricted the definition of torture with the result that many crimes fall outside the definition of torture described in article 126 and fall within the ambit of article 129 of the Penal Code, which makes the use of force a criminal misdemeanour.
This violates the definition of torture as contained in the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) which includes all crimes of torture. Article 1 of the CAT defines torture as:
…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person…
Article 2(1) states:
Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
Article 2(2) states that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be used as pretext to justify torture, even during the outbreak or threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, while article 2(3) provides that those accused of torture may not invoke the defence that they were following the orders of their superiors or a public authority.
Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
These international provisions make clear the gulf between Egyptian domestic legislation and international human rights instruments. Despite the fact that Egypt has ratified these instruments, and they have the force of law under article 151 of the Egyptian Constitution, they remain unimplemented. The public prosecution office continues to use the Penal Code in its definition of torture, ignoring the wider definition contained in the CAT and in the process allowing those accused of torture to escape justice.
Recommendations
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights presents the following recommendations to the attorney general, the Interior Minister and members of the People's Assembly.
To the attorney general
1. Immediately issue directives to district attorneys advising them of the necessity of carrying out speedy, thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture against the police, and make public the findings of these investigations.
2. Give effect to article 42 of the Criminal Procedures Code and article 27 of the Judicial Authority Act which empower members of the public prosecution office to make unannounced inspections of places of detention, meet detainees in private and record any complaints presented to them.
3. Speedy signing of the medical reports of individuals claiming that that they have been subjected to torture or mistreatment.
4. Allow both Egyptian and international human rights groups to enter places of detention and meet detainees in private.
5. Guarantee the right of those who have been subjected to torture while in arbitrary or illegal detention during the course of investigations to receive fair compensation quickly.
To the Interior Minister
1. Train police officers in human rights as a fundamental part of a programme to improve the capabilities of the police and security bodies and put an end to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment inflicted for the purposes of investigation or punishment.
2. Raise police officers' general awareness of human rights either by providing human rights courses in police colleges and academies or by holding training sessions for police officers on human right in general and in particular on the crime of torture.
3. Ensure the right of all detainees to appear before a legal body within 24 hours of their arrest.
4. Guarantee the right of family members to make immediate contact with detained relatives.
5. Ensure that detainees are only held in detention centres designated for this purpose and that the centres are open to government inspection, independent observers and detainees' families.
6. Conduct comprehensive and impartial inquiries into allegations of torture and make public the results of these inquiries, including disciplinary measures taken as a result of these investigations and the names of those disciplined.
Recommendations to members of the People's Assembly
1. Immediately accept the draft law presented by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights which proposes amendment of article 126 of the Penal Code in order to bring the definition of torture contained in Egyptian legislation in line with the CAT, of article 129 which is concerned with the use of force by public employees and of article 280 which criminalises detention without a legal basis in order to ensure that the punishment is proportionate with these crimes, which must be classified as felonies rather than misdemeanours.
2. Form a parliamentary fact-finding committee to examine reports issued on arbitrary and illegal detention and torture and mistreatment.
3. Demand that the government respect and abide by the principles and obligations connected with illegal detention and torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment contained in the CAT, the Arab Charter on Human Rights and the Egyptian Constitution.
4. Urge the government to take meaningful and perceptible legal and political steps to put an end to the practices of arbitrary detention and torture.
5. Announce the government's intention not to renew the application of Law 126[1958] on States of Emergency for another three years when the present state of emergency comes to an end in 2006.
6. Ratify the CAT Optional Protocol which allows international, independent rapporteurs to make periodic inspections of places of detention in member countries, assess detention conditions and present recommendations for their improvement.
7. Implement the general recommendations issued by the Committee Against Torture in May 2002 for the creation of an independent mechanism to investigate detainees' complaints.
The state and its legislative body must take the legislative measures it regards as necessary to punish individuals who attack rights and freedoms protected by the Constitution and Egyptian and international laws, deter future occurrences and sufficiently compensate their victims.
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Copyright © 2002 EOHR. All rights reserved. 
