CAIRO: A doctor from the El Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Violence was attacked by a policeman in a courtroom on Wednesday in Kafr El Dawwar, Beheira governorate.
According to a press statement issued by the El Nadim Center, Dr Magda Adly suffered a cut to the head and a possible dislocated shoulder as a result of the attack. She had been admitted to a hospital for treatment, but has since discharged herself.
A car belonging to El Nadim psychiatrist Dr Mona Hamdy, who was also present in the courtroom, was vandalized.
According to Dr Mostafa Hussein, a psychiatrist at El Nadim, Adly’s aggressor attacked her with a knife before attempting to flee. He was apprehended by relatives of Sobhy Mohamed Hussein, the man at the center of the court session at which Adly was attacked, and is now being held in custody.
The policeman admitted that he was acting upon the orders of chief intelligence officer Ahmed Maklad, the officer implicated in the Hussein case.
On Tuesday, April 22 at 2 am a police intelligence force from Kafr El-Dawwar broke into the home of Hussein’s son Mohamed while they were both away in Marsa Matrouh.
The force, consisting of officer Tamer El-Gizawy and six detectives told Mohamed’s daughter that they were looking for an individual named Mohamed Farouq before searching the house and eventually leaving.
At 10 am on the same day a larger police force returned to the house. Five armed officers and 14 detectives entered and attacked Hussein’s other son, Ahmed with iron and wooden bars, stripped him naked and dragged him 400 meters to the police station.
Ahmed was assaulted in front of his father, mother, wife, children and neighbors.
“They beat him very badly, psychiatrist Mostafa Hussein told Daily News Egypt.
“He lost [sight] in one eye and he still has bruises all over his body. He has abrasions to his back and buttocks from the dragging.
The Nadim report says that “Ahmed Sobhi Mohamed Hussein, 36 years old, suffers haemorrhage in the left eye with consequent no perception of light.
His 67-year-old father was kept in the house by some of the police informers, who allegedly burnt his body with cigarettes.
Mohamed and his father subsequently went to the Kafr El-Dawwar police station to file a complaint. While they were doing this, police officer Ahmed Maklad appeared, grabbed the complaint and threw it away before arresting Mohamed while he was in the prosecutor’s office.
Hussein was himself arrested after the police telephoned him and told him to come to the station to reach a reconciliation and release his son.
The police initially refused to accept medication for Hussein – who takes medication for hypertension and has a history of myocardial infarction.
They then accepted the medicine, but only gave him one dose.
According to the statement by El Nadim the men were only referred for forensic examination four days after the assault, but Ahmed has still not been referred for examination of his eye in order to control the bleeding.
The El Nadim delegation first went to Kafr El-Dawwar on Tuesday where they met the Hussein family and the detainees.
“We managed to meet the three persons held in custody in the deputy station chief’s room, Mostafa Hussein told Daily News Egypt.
“We managed to quickly examine Ahmed s eye and wounds and the father s cigarette burns on his chest. We also managed to get the father his diabetes and hypertension medication.
The men appeared in court on Wednesday on charges of resisting arrest. Their detention was renewed by the court.
El Nadim’s Hussein says that the attack on the family may have been prompted by their refusal to work as informers.
“Maklad was trying for a whole year to get Ahmed and Mohamed to work as informers for him. They refused, he told Daily News Egypt.
“They think that this might be the true motive for the use of violence against them.
Questions about the impartiality of the Kafr El-Dawwar public prosecution office have prompted El Nadim to request that the case be transferred elsewhere.
“We went to the public prosecutor s office in the high court today and handed him an appeal to transfer the case from Kafr El Dawwar to Damanhour, Mostafa Hussein said.
“He said that he has informed the public attorney in Damanhour, he continued.
Meanwhile, El Nadim’s Dr Magda Adly had gone to hospital following the assault, but refused to remain under observation.
While members of El Nadim have filed a complaint, Mostafa Hussein says that the public prosecution office has not yet sent anyone to take Adly’s statement.
El Nadim – the only organization in Egypt to offer counselling services to victims of torture and whose staff suffer frequent harassment by members of state security -says in its statement that it will be not be intimidated by this latest attack.
“We shall undertake the usual legal measures regarding this morning s crime against our staff and we retain our right to an appropriate response to the thuggery of the Ministry of Interior and the regime it protects.
