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On the Occasion of the World Day Against Torture
Detention, Torture and Sexual Harassment in Ain Shams Police Station
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27/6/2006
" Torture in Egypt is a systematic phenomenon" as stated by reports prepared by the Committee Against Torture (CAT), and it has proven to be right as time passes. On the World Day Against Torture, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights reported to the General Prosecution Office the incident of torturing and raping an adolescent in Ain Shams Police Station.
EOHR has received a complaint from Seham Mamdouh Mahmoud (19 years old), stating that she was illegally detained and was subjected to torture and sexual harassments inside Ain Shams Police Station. The General Prosecution listened to EOHR's lawyers and the testimony of the victim who stated that:" I work in a communication center in Ain Shams, on Monday 5/6/2006 some prepaid cards were stolen, so I went with the owner of the center to the police station to report.
I was shocked as they detained me in a solitary cell. After an hour, an officer entered the cell and he ordered me to undress and to submit to him or else he wont let me out. When I refused, he hit me, grabbed my clothes, unveiling and grasping my breasts, despite of my desperate resistance. After that, he dragged me on the floor, hitting me with his legs in my abdomen, back and different parts of my body. I fainted as I was bleeding. At night I was presented to the Prosecution Office, then I was released"
EOHR's lawyers demanded to present Seham to a forensic doctor immediately to determine her injuries. The Prosecution Office responded to the Organization's demand and ordered to present Seham to the forensic office.
EOHR expresses its deep concerns towards the spread of torture in Egypt in a legal and legislative environment that facilitate the build up of such phenomenon as torture, due to weak penalization stipulated in the Egyptian Penal Code for the perpetrators of such crime.
On the occasion of the World Day Against Torture, EOHR renews its demands to the People's Assembly to decide on the draft law presented by EOHR in 2003 to amend some Articles from the Criminal Procedures Code concerning the crime of torture to bring them in line with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which is ratified by Egypt in 1986.
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