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Cairo Criminal Court imprisons policemen for torturing a man to death
10/5/ 2005
Cairo Criminal Court yesterday (10/5/2005) sentenced(1) police officer Mohamed Mubarak Ali and assistant officers Zaghloul Hamed Higab and Ahmed Ibrahim Madany - all based at the Sayyeda Zeinab police station - to three years imprisonment after finding them guilty of intentional assault against Mahmoud Gabar Mohamed which led to his death.
On the 1st October 2003 Mohamed was arrested and detained in Sayyeda Zeinab police station. He died on the 7th October 2003 after being beaten by the three policemen who were attempting to force him to confess to a crime.
The Public Prosecution Office began investigations into the case after receiving complaints from both the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and Mohamed's brother. It sent the three policemen for criminal trial on charges of torturing Mahmoud Gabar Mohamed to death with the aim of forcing him to make a confession, a crime under article126 of the Penal Code. Division 17 of the Cairo Criminal Court started proceedings on the 17th April 2005, and EOHR lawyers attended the trial as representatives of the Mohamed's brother, the plaintiff in the civil claim. The lawyers supported the Public Prosecution Office's demands that the charges listed in the charge sheet be implemented.
The Court heard the defendants' testimony as well as that of defence and prosecution witnesses and changed the charges against the defendants to that of deliberate fatal assault, a crime under article 236(1) of the Penal Code. It sentenced the three men to three years imprisonment - the minimum sentence under this article -for reasons of clemency as it stated in the pronouncement of the verdict.
EOHR adopted this case as part of its campaign against torture. It despatched a fact-finding mission which interviewed members of Mohamed's family, presented complaints to the Prosecutor General and instigated civil proceedings during the course of investigations. In March 2005 EOHR issued a report, Torture and killings in police stations…when will it end?(2) The report, which was issued after the Public Prosecution Office referred the case to court, contains EOHR's monitoring and documentation of the case.
EOHR reaffirms that sentences such as the ones handed down in this case represent a new weapon in the fight against torture in Egypt. EOHR nonetheless remains convinced however, that new legislation on torture must be issued to amend provisions of the Penal and Criminal Procedures Codes, in particular articles 126, 129 and 280 of the Penal Code and articles 63 and 232 of the Criminal Procedures Code.
EOHR has previously submitted a draft law to the People's Assembly proposing amendments to the Penal and Criminal Procedures Codes which widen the definition of torture to bring it in harmony with the definition contained in the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Forms of Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment and which allow torture victims to raise direct legal action against perpetrators of torture.
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1- Case no. 3521 [2005] Sayyeda Zeinab Felonies, registration no. 85 [2005]
2- See http://www.eohr.org/report/2005/re0331.htm
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