(Photo from Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms )
A man named Sayed Abd Rabu, 40, died Thursday after allegedly being arrested in Matariya neighbourhood, Cairo.
The interior ministry said that Abd Rabu died after trying to escape from the police forces, which were on a mission to arrest him. “Upon sensing that police forces were surrounding his house, he tried to escape, where he fell to the ground sustaining skull fractures.”
The ministry added that he was transferred to the hospital, but had already died from sustained injuries.
However, the Islamist Anti-Coup Alliance accused the police of storming into the house of Abd Rabu and taking him to the Matariya police station, where he died. The alliance, which has been calling for anti-government protests since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, warned the police forces against such practices, adding that “they will taste their own medicine”.
According to the police, Abd Rabu was accused of torching a telecommunications tower.
On the other hand, the death was confirmed by the local human rights group Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, which argued that Abd Rabu was tortured after being arrested.
The Matariya police station is controversially known on the political scene as the “slaughterhouse”, in reference to the abundance of torture cases against detainees who are pending investigations.
On Friday, protests were staged in Matariya. Some protesters tried to storm the police station in the neighbourhood.
On the same day, a village called Nahyia near Giza witnessed protests, leaving a 15-year-old student killed.
Nahyia is one of the many Egyptian villages that have been witnessing weekly anti-government protests. In numerous cases, riot police have surrounded and raided such villages.
