Annual Report of The National Council for Human Rights

Cont. - Chapter Four

Grievances

2- Violation of the Right to Physical and Moral Safety (Torture):

The Grievance Committee received 74 complaints on torture. In discussing whether such complaints concern cruel treatment or torture - as defined according to international standards - the statistics and analysis in this report have resorted to the statements given by the complainants regarding blatant torture. Seven complaints in this regard were filed by the EOHR, a civil society organization.

The majority of these complaints relate to police stations, as 30 complainants claim that they or their relatives had been subjected to torture during their detention there.

Complainants do not only refer to the verbal abuse they were subjected to, but also to the various kinds of physical torture practiced at police stations, including the tying of hands to feet backwards, the hanging by arms or feet to the ceiling or doors, the opening of cold water currents on detainees and posing them in the nude for long hours in winter, striking, electrocuting, battery by fists, rods, belts, guns and rifles butts, electric cords, and whips.

Ten complainants claim that almost all police stations possess these torture items. One complainant stated that a police officer was inspecting the police station, whip in hand, and decided to lash all those whose "looks" he did not like. Furthermore, the search for perpetrators in criminal cases still depends on the random arrest of suspects in the vicinity of the crime scene and their torture to extract information. Although torture is a blatant violation of the Egyptian Constitution and the Law, it is still ongoing.

Three complainants claim that they or their relatives had been subjected to illegal detention and torture to force a suspect to surrender. If validated, these claims mean that those individuals were treated as hostages, which is a violation of all human rights. Some complainants state that they were tortured to force a suspect to confess to his crime. In other words, the innocent are subjected to torture for crimes they did not commit.

Another five complainants state that they or their relatives were tortured to pressure them to work, against their will, as informers for the police force since they had been previously convicted.

Torture in police stations is not inflicted on suspects alone, but is sometimes a mean whereby citizens "disciplined". Five complainants state that they or their relatives had entered police stations to inquire about or report certain incidences but were detained or tortured. One complainant claims that he was stamped under the feet of an officer.

Four other complainants claim that their torture was meant by police officers to settle scores between them or to pressure them in their disputes with influential persons. Two complainants claim that police officers incited detainees with criminal records to torture them.

It is worth noting that those with criminal records are kept in custody with suspects in the same cell at police stations, in violation of the decree adopted by the Minister of the Interior in December 2002, which stipulates that a room should be allocated in every police station in Cairo for the detention of citizens who do not have criminal records. Such detention room should be located far away from temporary detention cells where criminals are held.

Sometimes the severity of torture inflicted on detainees leads to their death, as indicated in three complaints. Two of the complainants assert that there are signs of torture on the bodies of their relatives who had died while in police custody. The third complainant requests a full investigation of her husband's death during his detention at a police station.

The SSIS is not legally authorized to hold citizens in custody at its premises. The representative of the Public Prosecution stated in "Wafd Misr" Newspaper before an anti-torture committee that such premises do not include prison cells but only administrative offices.

The NCHR received nine complaints reporting that the complainants or their relatives had been tortured at the premises of the SSIS. They were allegedly electrocuted, or hung from their arms or legs for long intervals, or their hands were tied throughout their detention period, during which they were isolated from the outside world. One of the complainants states that this kind of torture led to the death of his detained son.

All covenants of the International Organization for Human Rights and the Egyptian Constitution and Law stipulate that the human dignity of prisoners must be maintained. The International Treaty for Civil and Political Rights states that all those deprived of their freedom should receive humane treatment which maintains their dignity (Article 10/10). Also stipulated is that prison systems must be established with the main aim of rehabilitation of prisoners.

In addition, the Treaty asserts the basic principles for treating prisoners, which has been approved by the United Nations General Assembly by Resolution No. 45/111, concerning the treatment of prisoners with due respect to maintain their personal dignity as human beings.

On these grounds, 14 complaints were delivered to the Council in which complainants claim that they were tortured in prison and committed to solitary confinement for long intervals in violation of Article 43 of Law No. 396 of 1956, which prohibits solitary confinement for intervals exceeding 15 days. These complainants also claim they were subjected to verbal assault, battery, and electrocution.

To protect temporary detainees from the measures taken by some officers to influence or coerce them into confession or to affect the progress of investigations, the law does not allow officers to contact temporary detainees as specified in Article 79 of Law No. 396 of 1956.

However, complaints concerning torture during detention at police stations are more numerous than reports of torture during imprisonment.

Six complainants claim that they were subjected to a great deal of pressure and hindrance as they tried to file complaints regarding their torture, especially since they were in detention and unprotected. Some complainants claim that they were refused transfer to hospitals for their injuries from torture. Others claim that they were flogged as a means of pressuring them to withdraw their requests to be examined by a forensic doctor to confirm their injuries.

Another three complainants claim that police officers conspired to conceal the reports of forensic doctors evidencing that the victims had been injured due to torture.

Furthermore, two other complainants stated that some police officers conspired to conceal the evidence regarding the death of a detainee during torture. The officers moved the corpse outside the detention area and staged the death of the deceased as suicide. Other officers sometimes force paramedics and hospitals to accept corpses as if the deceased were alive.