POLICE BRUTALITY in Egypt is “routine and pervasive” and the use of torture so widespread that the Egyptian government has stopped denying it occurs, according to cables released yesterday by WikiLeaks.
The batch of US embassy cables paint a despairing portrait of a police force and security service wholly out of control. They suggest torture is routinely used against ordinary criminals, Islamist detainees, opposition activists and bloggers.
“The police use brutal methods mostly against common criminals to extract confessions, but also against demonstrators, certain political prisoners and unfortunate bystanders. One human rights lawyer told us there is evidence of torture in Egypt dating back to the time of the pharaohs. NGO contacts estimate there are literally hundreds of torture incidents every day in Cairo police stations alone,” one cable said.
Under Hosni Mubarak’s presidency there had been “no serious effort to transform the police from an instrument of regime power into a public service institution”, it said.
The police’s ubiquitous use of force had pervaded Egyptian culture to such an extent that one TV soap opera recently featured a police detective hero who beat up suspects to collect evidence.
Some middle-class Egyptians did not report thefts from their apartment blocks because they knew the police would immediately go and torture “all of the doormen”, the cable added. It cited one source who said the police would routinely use electric shocks against suspected criminals, and would beat up human rights lawyers who enter police stations to defend their clients.
Women detainees allegedly face sexual abuse. Demoralised officers felt solving crimes justified brutal methods, with some believing Islamic law sanctioned torture. – (Guardian service)