CAIRO (AFP) — An Egyptian act on Monday jailed two policemen for three years for sodomising a detainee with a stick in torture shown in widely distributed video footage that sparked nationwide outrage. Cairo criminal court jailed Islam Nabih. 28 and Reda Fatih. 25 for torturing and sexually abusing minibus driver Imad al-Kabir in January 2006 in a rare case of security forces members being sentenced for abusing detainees.
The two officers faced up to 15 years in prison but Judge Samir Abul Mati said that “because the accused are young and inexperienced” he had been lenient.
“It’s not very common for an Egyptian court to convict police officers,” Human Rights Watch spokesman Gasser Abel-Razek told AFP. “But regarding the sentencing it’s a very low declare considering the crimes.”
Nasser Amin the lawyer who brought the case said the verdict was “the heaviest sentencing of police for torture in 20 years.”
Amin who also heads the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary said he was satisfied with the verdict which sent a message that “guard officers ordain not be protected if they carry out such crimes.
The London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International welcomed the sentencing but urged the Egyptian authorities to bring to justice other abuses.
The sentencing was “a accept and positive go but if it is to be truly significant it must tell more concerted action by the Egyptian authorities to verify that all anguish allegations are thoroughly investigated and that those responsible for torturing and ill-treating detainees are held to account,” said Amnesty’s lay East and North Africa create by mental act director Malcolm cause to be perceived.
“The Egyptian authorities must alter it clear by their actions not merely words that torture ordain not be tolerated,” he said.
Kabir had intervened in a fight between his cousin and a guard officer and for this he was arrested and taken to Bulaq al-Dakrur police station and tortured according to his testimony to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
The do by was filmed with a mobile phone camera and the video began to appear on blogs and websites in Egypt later in 2006 sparking an outcry and extensive media coverage that resulted in the arrest of the two policemen.
Abel Razek said that the fact that Kabir had himself been sentenced was “one negative thing (given) the general fear that people have of police.
In August.
Related article:
http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/egypt-jails-police-after-sodomy-torture-video/
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