By Marwa Al-A’asar
CAIRO: Al-Shehab Center for Human rights filed a complaint Sunday before the prosecution accusing the police of negligence and torturing a man to death.
In the complaint, Al-Shehab director Khalaf Bayoumy questioned the credibility of the forensic report of the death of Moustafa Attiya El-Sayed, 39, a taxi driver, accusing the police of torturing him to death while detaining him earlier on Dec. 7.
Bayoumy further accused the forensic department of not being objective and being controlled by the police.
“The forensic doctor dealt with the issue as a top secret, refusing to let us read the report till today,” Bayoumy told Daily News Egypt.
According to Bayoumy, the police arrested eight witnesses to the incident, seizing them for over 10 hours inside the police station in an attempt to intimidate them to change their testimonies.
Ibrahim Attia El-Sayed, the deceased’s brother accused a police informant of asking El-Sayed for a bribe so as not to arrest him before the due date of a LE 5,000 loan.
The brother said that the informant and El-Sayed engaged in a fight when the latter refused to pay the bribe, which led to his death.
However, the forensic report released earlier last week ruled out torture as the cause of death during El-Sayed detention.
“When his brother saw the body, he noticed signs of injuries in his back and neck … the person who washed up the body before burial confirmed the brother’s story in addition to detecting skull fractures,” Bayoumy told Daily News Egypt.
Daily state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper quoted a statement by the Alexandria Police Directorate as saying that El-Sayed was detained by a policeman; and on their way to the police station, he fainted.
The policeman, the statement added, carried El-Sayed with the help of some citizens to the nearest medical center where he passed away.
The police said El-Sayed had received 11 verdicts before. Yet Bayoumy confirmed that El-Sayed’s criminal record was clear.
The policeman said there were nine people who witnessed the incident. But according to Bayoumy, El-Sayed’s family said he had undergone as heart surgery in 1990.
