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Cairo,4/12/2003
Alexandria Criminal Court decided to adjourn the case in which six police officers are charged with torturing the victim Mohammad Badr Eldeen Gomaa -to force him to confess falsely his murdering his own girl, who in her turn proved to be a live. The session Was adjourned to Tuesday the 6th of January 2004. In the first session on 6/11/2003 the case was postponed to today's session 4/12/2003. The lawyers of the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid AHRLA, attended the session, accompanied with Mr. Adel Eied (Member of Parliament), Mr. Moustafa Al-Bakry Afifi, Mr. Moustafa Talaat (representative of the Association of Human Rights Advocates), Mr. Essam El-Shatby, Mr. Gamal Abdel Aziz (Human Rights Activist), and Mr. Helmy Al-Rawy (representative of the Egyptian Initiation for Personal Rights). The security forces harassed some of the lawyers who wanted to attend the session, those who could attend demanded that the victim Mohammad Badr Eldeen Gomaa should state his testimony; they also demanded to attach the juvenile record of the misdemeanor No 575/1997, related to admitting Gehad, the victim's child, in the juvenile institution for girls, and also to attach the two general records for the two months, February and March 1996 in Al-Montazah police station. As for the lawyers defending the charged officers, they demanded to attach some communiqués from Al-Montazah police station and East Alexandria police station; they also demanded the social expert in the juvenile institution, Mohammad El-Tonsy and Moustafa Al-Bakry to state their testimony. The officers' lawyers rejected the presence of AHRLA's lawyers as representatives of a Human Rights association. The officers' lawyers demanded to disallow any publication about the case pointing to AHRLA's many publications about the very case of torture, but the court did not approve depending on the constitutional principal right of circulating information. Moreover, the officer's lawyers tried to confuse the court with the many details in spite of the readiness of the victim's lawyers to plead in today's session. Finally, AHRLA asserts on the great importance of this among the many complaints it received since 1996. AHRLA also calls for all the civil society institutions in Egypt, particularly Human Rights organizations interested in fighting Torture practicing, to unite with the association in that case and take the role of an active initiative partner to reach a nation without torture. |