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Islamic Human Rights Commission

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11 June 2010

Alert: Egypt – Egyptian citizen tortured to death in public

Contents

1. Summary

2. Background

1. Summary

Khaled Mohamed Saeed Sobhy Qasem, 28 years old and owner of an import and export company, was killed on Tuesday 8 June 2010 by security informants in Alexandria, Egypt.

Khaled was arrested after objecting to the security and police informants’ methods during a search of the internet café he was at. He was roughly manhandled and pushed out onto the streets before being dragged into a nearby building entrance where he was viciously beaten and kicked.

Eye witnesses reported that the police then took him in a police vehicle only to come back later and dump his dead body.

2. Background

Khaled Saed’s family filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor against the Ministry of Interior calling for the investigation of their son’s death.

The victim’s family accuse security informers and police officers of torturing Khaled outside the internet cafe as well as during the time in between arresting him and dumping his body on the streets. The family insisted on their right to bring all perpetrators before the judiciary.

Ahmed Saed said that when he heard the news of his brother’s death, he went to Major Emad El-Din Abdel Zaher, Head of Sidi Gaber State Security Investigations, to find out the reason behind the arrest. The Major informed him that his brother was a drug addict and the reason behind his death was due to a drug overdose in the police station.

Ahmed Saed stressed that his brother was not detained during that night in any detention or police station as the time between him being beaten outside the cafe and his body being dumped in the streets was 10 minutes.

His mother, Layla Marzouq, stressed that she knows the reasons behind his killing.

According to Al-Shorouq newspaper she said that her son had recorded a video showing police officers and informers involved in drug trafficking activity. Khaled sent the video to his friends over a month ago and said that he would make a blog to expose these crimes.

She added that she is surprised that they never threatened him before they came to kill him as is usual practice by Egyptian police.

Ahmed Saed, the victim’s brother, said that Alexandria’s Prosecutors Office ordered an investigation by a coroner to reveal the reasons and circumstances of Khaled’s death.

IHRC condemns the use of the Emergency Law against civilians and urges the Egyptian government to abolish it as it is being used to commit shocking human rights violations by the Egyptian authorities.

IHRC calls for the immediate investigation of the killing of Khaled Saed and the reasons behind his death and to bring all the perpetrators before justice.

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“And what reason have you that you should not fight in the way of Allah and of the weak among the men and the women and the children, (of) those who say: Our Lord! Cause us to go forth from this town, whose people are oppressors, and give us from Thee a guardian and give us from Thee a helper.”

Holy Qur’an: Chapter 4, Verse 75

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