Human Rights Monitor has condemned the death of three Egyptians by torture in the Matareya Police Station over the past few days.
The organization said in a report released Thursday that the Egyptian authorities continue to violate all forms of human rights, not only by arresting citizens arbitrarily and without any charges or permission from the prosecution, but also by torturing them in various ways, such as beating, dragging, electrocuting and other methods of systematic torture in places of detention.
The organization said it has monitored many cases of systematic torture in detention facilities, most recently the killing of three detainees on Sunday and Tuesday in the Matareya Police Station.
It said the first victim was a 21-year-old student named Mostafa Ibrahim Mahmoud who was suspended in the air for eight hours and electrocuted, causing him severe bleeding. He was left hanging without treatment until he died upon arrival at the hospital.
The second victim was a lawyer named Karim Hamdy and the third was a 42-year-old electrician from Shubra al-Kheima who was arrested on 30 January and tortured there on a daily basis until the police informed his family of his death on Thursday.
His parents told Human Rights Monitor that they saw clear signs of torture on his body when they visited him in the police station before he died.
The organization accused the Egyptian authorities of violating Article 52 of the Constitution that criminalizes all forms of torture and Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that states that the right to life is a sacred right that shall not be violated for any reason.
It has requested the United Nations and the international community to send fact-finding missions to examine prisons and police stations in Egypt, conduct investigation into the killing of more than 200 detainees as a result of systematic torture and bring those responsible to trial.
It has demanded that the Egyptian authorities abide by international laws on the treatment of prisoners and bear full responsibility for the lives of detainees inside formal and informal places of detention.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
