Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Ripples in stagnant water

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 23 - 29 August 2001 Issue No.548
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Ripples in stagnant water
Amira Howeidy reports on the launch of a campaign against torture in police stations
The nation's police stations recently replaced their familiar motto known to generations of Egyptians ("The police are in the people's service") with the dubious "the people and the police are in the service of the homeland." Tarek Khater, who heads the anti-torture legal department of the Association for Human Rights Legal AID (AHRLA), concludes that the modification of the motto marks a significant, and negative, shift in the policy of the security services. "Does this mean that the police are no longer in the people's service?" he wonders.
Khater's remark came during a discussion of AHRLA's campaign against torture in police stations, which it launched on 15 August and which is due to last for five months.
"We do not think that torture in police stations has increased, but we do feel it's about time these practices were lobbied against and stopped," he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
A statement issued by AHRLA said that torture in police stations has become a dangerous practice "threatening the safety and dignity of citizens." But why has AHRLA singled out police stations when most human rights groups complain of violations inside prisons as well? "Well, we believe it's better to take it step-by-step and not open on all fronts at the same time," argued Samir El-Bagouri, AHRLA's legal consultant.
"We are not targeting the security machine only here; we want to create awareness among people, the media, decision-makers, government officials, the People's Assembly etc. This is the only way everyone will know their rights," El-Bagouri explained.
The Egyptian Constitution clearly holds torture, the use of force, and all types of degrading treatment to be criminal offences, as do several international agreements to which Egypt is party and, which are, therefore, legally binding. And yet torture continues in police stations, says AHRLA, and the perpetrators go unpunished.
"A police officer who practices torture isn't normal, and needs rehabilitation," Khater argued. "I am not saying that this is a state policy. Everyone, rights activists and officials, are against torture."
AHRLA has been working on a number of cases involving brutal and humiliating treatment as well as torture, which sometimes leads to death in custody. This year alone, AHRLA says it has documented 10 cases of torture in police stations.
"We are convinced that torture has now become a practice that can only be defeated if a clear political will is exercised. In order for this to become a reality, it is imperative that a far broader section of society becomes aware of the dangers and implications involved," he pointed out.
AHRLA is taking issue with what it considers the indifference of authorities towards perpetrators of torture crimes who, it claims, are treated as if they had carried out "minor excesses," requiring only the simplest of punitive measures. On the other hand, the NGO believes there is a legal loophole in Article 126 of the Penal Code which only penalises torture when practiced with intent to extract confessions from a suspect. AHRLA wants to modify this article or introduce new clauses to expand the definition of torture. "As it is, the law is basically interested in the intentions of the person who tortures the victim, and not in the practice itself," Khater explained. A case in point is a recent court ruling against a police officer who was found guilty of torturing 13 citizens. The officer received a sentence of a 10- day pay cut on the grounds that torture was a "simple administrative error".
Another rights group, the Human Rights Centre for the Assistance of Prisoners, joined the anti-torture campaign this week with the launch of a training programme to train 100 lawyers on "the right of corporal safety." In a statement issued Tuesday, the centre said the programme will take place at the headquarters of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights and will involve specialised law professors and human rights activists.
AHRLA activists say they realise that the campaign against torture is no easy endeavour and cannot be a single unsustained act. "But we cannot just sit there and do nothing about it," Khater insists. "Our campaign is intended to create ripples in stagnant waters and, hopefully, something will materialise from it."

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