Amnesty International (AI) has called on Egyptian authorities to investigate policemen responsible for the treatment of detainees depicted in leaked videos of police abuse at al-Salam First Police Station in Cairo, Egypt.

The videos, first revealed by the Guardian on 24 January, appear to show prisoners beaten, tortured and hung by Egyptian security officers at the police station.

The rights organisation said torture and other ill-treatment are routinely used in Egypt, particularly during the investigation phase and in the initial period of detention.

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior had dismissed the videos as fabricated and the Public Prosecution Office claimed that the men depicted in the videos had been ‘incited by unknown individuals’ from inside and outside Egypt to ‘wound themselves’ with a metal coin, and to disseminate the video with the aim of ‘spreading lies and instability’.

‘It is both shameful and surreal that the Egyptian authorities’ response to this video was to punish the victims and some of their friends instead of immediately investigating those caught on video in a stark illustration of Egypt’s epidemic of torture and other ill-treatment’, AI’s North Africa Research and Advocacy Director, Philip Luther, said in a statement.

‘This is yet another scene in the farce of the authorities blatantly denying any wrongdoing and suppressing the voices of victims daring to call for justice.

‘Police officers at al-Salam First reasonably suspected of involvement in the torture or other ill-treatment of detainees should be suspended from service pending the outcome of criminal investigations, and authorities must ensure that detainees alleging torture and other ill-treatment are protected from further reprisals and able to give their testimonies confidentially’.

Egyptian security forces, according to the U.S. State Department Egypt 2020 Human Rights Report, had carried out arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearances and other gross human rights violations.

Freedom House also ranks the Maghreb nation as ‘not free’ in its 2022 Freedom in the World report on political rights and civil liberties, with the North African country earning 18 points out of a possible 100.

Source: Amnesty International

Photo source: Amnesty International