(File Photo)(AFP/Photo)
Karim Nasser, a protester arrested for allegedly rioting and attacking authorities, claimed he was sexually assaulted while in police custody.
He filed a report to the prosecutor general, claiming to have been tortured and sexually assaulted inside New Cairo Police Station after his arrest.
Nasser told independent channel ONTV he was arrested on 8 February, and taken to Dokki Police Station. He was moved to the Giza security directorate before being taken the police station in New Cairo. There, Nasser claimed he was subjected to torture and rape alongside at least 20 other detained men.
“They no longer beat us up,” Nasser said. “They just wanted to emasculate us.”
Nasser returned to Tahrir Square after being released four days later. His lawyer, Asaad Haikal, then filed a report to the prosecutor general, accompanied by eyewitnesses of the sexual assault. Haikal stated in the report that around 20 other men were held in a secret cell in the police station and subjected to similar abuse.
“We witnessed stalling from the prosecutor general,” Haikal said. He added he demanded the prosecution release the other men in the police stations as well as perform a medical examination on Nasser by the Forensic Medical Authority (FMA). None of these demands were met.
Instead Nasser was admitted to the privately-owned Al-Salam Hospital in Maadi. The Al-Dostour party founding member Haitham Al-Khatib told ONTV that Nasser’s initial medical report revealed anal injuries. “The report also showed that Nasser’s left arm was dislocated after he was suspended from the arm while being tortured,” Haikal said.
Ayman Mahni also claimed in an online video he was tortured and raped by the police after his arrest in Alexandria. Mahni stated he was on his way to pay his telephone bill on 3 February, when he came across a rally protesting the beating of Hamada Saber.
Mahni claimed he was randomly arrested and taken to a Central Security Forces camp where they frequently tied his hands and covered his face with a black bag. Mahni claimed he was told he would be released if he confessed to being a Black Bloc member. He said he was electrocuted and tortured as well.
“The revolutionary demands I call for are bread, freedom and human dignity,” Mahni said. “Human dignity was raped just like me.”
“In over a decade I have not seen as many cases of male activists being raped in police custody as in the past few weeks,” said Hossam Bahgat in a personal tweet. Bahgat is the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a human rights watchdog organisation.
Rape in Egyptian detention facilities was one of the scare tactics frequently used by the former regime to force confessions out of detainees and sometimes to simply humiliate them.
The case of Emab Al-Kebir brought the issue into the spotlight in 2006. Al-Kebir was a microbus driver who got into a fight with a police officer. The officer then took him into custody, shot a video of him being raped and distributed it among his fellow drivers to humiliate him.
