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'Tortured' prisoners death angers Egyptians
CAIRO: The death of a prisoner, allegedly under police torture, has sparked public anger against Egypts ruling military council, accused by rights groups of pursuing security practices familiar from the era of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.Essam Atta, 23, died in Tora prison south of Cairo on Thursday, according to the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture. A military court had jailed him for two years in February for offenses including thuggery. Protesters carried his body on Friday from the morgue to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak uprising, chanting against the military council and Interior Ministry. Since we started operating in 1993 till now, torture hasnt stopped for one day, said the Nadeem Centers director, Aida Seif el-Dawla, who said both the police and military now practised it, a charge the authorities deny. Attas family accused prison officers of torturing him by inserting a hose in his mouth and anus and pumping water and soap into his body causing mass bleeding that led to his death. The Interior Ministry said he had died of Human rights campaigners have compared Attas death to that of Khaled Said, an online activist whose killing by police in Alexandria helped ignite the revolt that toppled Mubarak. According to Attas brother Mohamed, his mother gave her son a mobile phone card on Oct. 25. Another prisoner told prison police, saying Atta was smuggling drugs. Police officers ended the visit and started beating him; his mother could hear his cries calling for help from outside the room, Mohamed Atta told Egypts Al-Nahar satellite channel. He said he had seen his brothers body in hospital after Attas cellmates called him to tell he was dead. I saw him bleeding from everywhere and bubbles on his body, he said. Posted by: Steve White 2011-10-30 |
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