Egyptian police accused of beating businessman Khalid Said to death


For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-06-12


A potential case of police brutality in Egypt sparked condemnation by human rights organisations at home and abroad.

Family members of 28-year-old businessman Khalid Said said police beat him to death on Sunday (June 6th) after he posted a video online of officers sharing the spoils of a drug raid among themselves.

According to Amnesty International, which is demanding an investigation into the incident, police initially told the family that Said swallowed a bag of narcotics when police officers approached him and that he died of an overdose.

A police spokesman said on June 10th that the cause of Said's death is unknown and is being investigated. But the family's lawyer cited witnesses who saw two security officials in civilian clothes forcibly removing Said from an internet café, dragged him into the street and beat him to death.

Photographs of Said's battered corpse are being posted on social networking sites and blogs.

Aida Seif al-Dawla, the head of Egyptian Association Against Torture, said it was no longer enough to ask for an investigation, and that the head of the police in Egypt has to be "sacked".

Mohamed ElBaradei, a possible presidential candidate, wrote on his Facebook and Twitter pages that "Khaled's life must not be lost in vain."

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Reader Comments

عبدالحسن محمد2010-07-19 04:03:00

The crimes in the Arab world are a result of the backward Arab traditions that consider the military and political authorities to be the same. Of course, this gives the presidents of these countries the right to suppress their peoples if they demand their rights. The Arab child learns how to use a rifle without knowing anything about human rights.

عبداللطيف2010-06-14 04:00:00

The Egyptian people are ruled by an authoritarian regime led by the current president Hosni Mubarak, who took power in Egypt at the beginning of the eighties of the last century up until now. He has changed the regime in Egypt from a republican regime to a monarchy. He has become the King, relying on cronyism by appointing his family members only. As a result of the difficult circumstances endured by Egyptians at the social, health and services levels, the Egyptian opposition has merged and started its activities in order to change this harsh reality. Voices calling for change have risen to rid the Egyptian people of the poor conditions in which they live under the autocracy of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. His policies have led to the collapse of the economic situation in Egypt, which in turn led to the migration of many young men in order to search for a job to save face and provide for their families. Besides, we see that Egypt suffers from a severe housing crisis as a result of the high population increase taking place in Egypt. There is no government intervention to solve this problem by in building new housing units, as it is for the accumulation of the resulting problems.

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