The Ministry of Interior issued a statement Thursday responding to media reports on an incident of sexual harassment involving an 18 year old mentally handicapped girl in Imbaba police station.
The ministry statement said the police-officer accused of the act has been referred to state prosecution, which will take over the investigation.
Hisham AbdelHameed, a Forensics Authority spokesman, said the girl had been examined twice, as she was detained at Imababa police station for investigations on a sexual assault case. It is reported that two people tried to kidnap her. AbdelHameed added that they “found no proof that [the victim] was subjected to assault in both cases”, either by the police officer or the case she was detained for.
He noted that evidence that could have helped prove the victim’s claims include the clothes she was wearing during the assault. These, however, were washed and thrown away by eye-witnesses to the incident, and expressed doubt over the victim’s account.
According to an interior ministry spokesman, the prosecution is investigating the matter, with new evidence yet to surface. The forensic authority have denied the girl’s subjection to any sexual assault.
Human rights lawyer Mohamed Zare said the Forensics Authority can only confirm cases of rape or internal violence rather than “external violence”.
Zare also said that since the girl was detained she has been prohibited from changing her clothes without permission, which he called unethical. He added that he feared evidence could be tampered with.
Another case of assault by police officers went viral via a video on social networks. Three police officers were filmed tampering with a corpse of a recorded criminal in the morgue of Khanka Hospital.
The Interior Ministry have suspended the three police officers for three months as a result.
Zare said that the most significant part of the video was the extent to which the police officers were confident they would not get into trouble.
He added that despite the demeaning acts of some police officers, the ministry’s condemnation of their actions was quick.
The Ministry of Interior noted in the statement Thursday that the ministry does not “conceal any facts attributed to the police-men”. The statement added that “these are individual incidents which are addressed with deterrent measures”.
