West Cairo prosecution is proceeding with its investigation of the death of Magdy Makeen, 54, allegedly at the hands of the police of al-Ameeriya in Cairo; also in the torture of Mohsen Nabil and Muhammad al-Arabi by the same police.
Makeen, a Copt who earned his living selling fish on his horse cart, was caught together with Nabil and Arabi as he drove his cart on the street in al-Ameeriya on 13 November; both men were riding with him on the cart. The two men say that Makeen accidentally hit a police car that was passing by. The police officer in the car, Captain Karim Magdy, shouted obscenities at Makeen who retaliated by shouting back insults. The verbal fight escalated; Makeen drove away to escape the police but they caught him and took all three men to the police station of al-Ameeriya.
The police story goes that the three men on the horse cart were selling drugs and the police was chasing them. The police car hit the horse cart during the chase and Makeen lost his life. The police said they found 2000 tablets of narcotics in the cart.
Once at the police station, the three men were beaten up and tortured. Nabil and Arabi say that Makeen died two hours later. Makeen’s family was informed of his death by Zaitoun Hospital the following day, 14 November, at 8am. Family members and friends rushed to the hospital and from there accompanied the body to the morgue where they discovered that the body carried evidence of brutal torture.
[https://en.wataninet.com/news-2/crime/police-crime-shocks-angers-egyptians-2/18056/]
The family reported the incident to the authorities. Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar directly issued an order suspending Captain Karim Magdy pending investigation. The prosecution demanded an after-death report from the Forensic Medicine Authority. But the report is not out yet.
Medical examination, however, proved that both Nabil and Arabi had been beaten and tortured. The CCTV cameras at the police station also revealed that the three men were beaten, hit, and kicked by the policemen as soon as they entered the police station. The policemen involved are being questioned by the prosecution.
The prosecution is handling the incident in two separate cases: the first concerns the torture and brutality exercised by the police against the three men; the second concerns the death of Makeen.
MP Alaa’ Abed head of the House of Representative’s committee of human rights, has said that parliament is closely following on the case.
WATANI International
27 November 2016