|
EOHR Demands the Amendment of Articles Concerned with Torture in the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedures Code
|
6/2/2007
EOHR expresses its anxiety concerning the spread of torture inside police stations and state security facilities. Torture techniques has evolved in the last period to cause more humiliation to the victim. As an example of this is what happened with Ehab Magdy Farouk, when he was filmed by a mobile phone camera by an officer in Embaba Police Station while police corporals beating him.
On the 1st of February 2007 EOHR received a complaint from the victim where he stated: " In 2005, I was arrested by two police corporals, Ahmed Ahmed Abdela Aziz and Ahmed Abdel Fattah. They cuffed my hands with a piece of cloth and held me inside a marble workshop in El Bohi street. They whipped me, beat me with stick and threw me with marble pieces which wounded me in the chin. After that they took me to Embaba Police Station, where corporal Abdel Fattah hit me on the back of my neck while there was police officer filming with his mobile phone camera."
When Masri Elyoum Newspaper published the incident, the Dokki Prosecution Office summoned the journalist who published it and Ehab on 2/2/2007 by a direct decree from the Prosecutor General. On 3/2/2007, the prosecution office summoned Ehab's family to investigate the incident of illegally detaining them in Mounira Police Station. EOHR dispatched its lawyers to attend the interrogations.
In the same context, EOHR monitored 263 torture cases between 2000-2006 inside police stations and detention centers, including 79 cases ended with the death of the victim believed by EOHR to be a direct result of torture and mal treatment. There were also 10 torture incidents been monitored since the end of 2006 and till the beginning of February 2007. These statistics show the failure of law to stop and punish the perpetrators of torture which became a phenomena in the Egyptian society.
EOHR emphasizes that what feeds up the phenomena of torture and makes it more dangerous is the continuous state of emergency which is enabled since 1981. In addition to the legislative deficiencies to punish the perpetrators of torture, and preventing the victims from resorting to court. Also working with old laws and drafting new laws with exceptional nature and integrating them into the legal framework which favor themes like "security" and " national order" over justice and equality, which led to disabling the concepts of justice and legitimacy. Some policemen commit crimes against citizens, however the current legal framework doesn't contribute to restrict these practices, and sometimes it gives legitimacy to such acts.
Aiming for a full enactment of the Convention Against Torture, and working for reducing the spread of torture in the society, EOHR calls upon the Parliament and the Shura Council to decide upon the draft law presented by EOHR that introduces amendments to Articles 129,129,280 of the Penal Code and Articles 232 and 63 of the Criminal Procedures Code.
In the same context, EOHR demand the following:
1- The Egyptian Government should ratify international human rights documents related to torture (such as those referred to in Articles 21 and 22 of the Convention Against Torture) which will enable the UN's Committee Against Torture to receive complaints from states as well as individuals.
2- The Prosecution Office should run an immediate investigation on all complaints presented by individuals or organizations concerning the treatment of prisoners and detainees.
3- The Prosecutor Office should carry out periodical inspection on police stations and detention centers to investigate the legal stand of all detainees and to confiscate torture tools and criminalize the perpetrators.
4- Running a parallel investigation with policemen accused of torture beside the interrogation carried out by the prosecution office.
5- Establishing a separate body that includes judges, lawyers and physicians to investigate all torture cases and to present the perpetrators to justice. This body should have access to all data and files related to cases and shall enjoy the authority to interrogate all persons in concern, and to study thoroughly all the political, social or psychological aspects that may lead to the spread of torture.
6- Organizing training courses and workshops addressing police officers on how to deal with the detainees in a way that doesn't violate their rights and dignity furnished by the Constitution and international human rights documents ratified by the Egyptian Government.
7- Teaching a human rights course in the curriculum of the police academy and other police institutes, especially corporals and police agents institutes.
|
|
