CAIRO: A journalist filed a complaint to the Minister of Interior accusing a policeman in Qaliubiya governorate of allegedly having his mother placed in the morgue refrigerator following a road accident, the United Journalists Center (UJC) said in a statement Thursday.
“A police captain working at Qaha village police station gave instructions to place my mother in the mortuary refrigerator before having her medically examined to confirm death,” Sameh Mahrous, a journalist at state-owned El-Gomhouriya newspaper, told Daily News Egypt.
On Aug. 15, Mahrous’ mother, Feryal Gouda, accompanied by her daughter, was hit by a truck while crossing the street at Qaha village.
Since the accident was close to the police station, a few minutes later a police captain arrived at the scene where the mother lay motionless.
“The police captain procrastinated for 50 minutes in allowing the ambulance to carry my mother to the nearest hospital as he finalized his paperwork, claiming that she was already dead and needed no medical care,” Mahrous said.
After Gouda was finally carried to a small hospital at the time of iftar, there were no doctors available to examine her.
“The captain accordingly ordered the hospital nurses to move her to the morgue saying she was dead. And when my sister objected, he pushed her to the floor,” Mahrous said.
Mahrous’ brother begged the officer to let him take the mother to the emergency room at Nasser Institute Hospital in Cairo in his private car. After a while, the officer only agreed after he kept the son’s ID with him.
Mahrous said that doctors at Nasser Institute tried in vain to revive her for over an hour.
“The doctors told us that she had died before arriving at the hospital,” he said. “We lost two hours because of this officer during which my mother’s life could have been saved.”
In two complaints, one filed on Aug. 21 and another on Aug. 25, Mahrous accused the head of the police directorate in Qaliubiya, the police chief in Qaha and the captain of negligence and reluctance to take the necessary measures to save the mother.
He also accused the police captain of not even attempting to find the truck driver who ran her over.
“I will seek all legal channels to prosecute him. He could have attempted to arrest the perpetrator.” Mahrous said.
“There were about seven check points on the way to Cairo. The driver could have been arrested had the officer reported the incident on the spot over the radio,” he said.
