Regeni’s Family Legal Adviser Beaten In Prison

Lawyer Mohamed Hanafi, who is defending Ahmed Abdallah – the board chairman of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedom (ECRF) and the legal adviser of  the family of Jiulio Regeni, who was murdered and found with signs of torture on his body in Egypt last February- submitted a request to East Cairo prosecution to investigate an assault incident against his defendant, according to al-Ahram Gate, a state-run news site.

Mohamed Hanafi  said that his defendant was beaten and his personal belongings were taken by the New Cairo police station officers.

The defense request stated that the police officers in the New Cairo police station inspected Ahmed Abdallah’s cell and assaulted him with beatings (punches on the face). They confiscated all his personal belongings and books, which were authorized by police station’s commissioner, in a clear violation of his client’s rights, according to the lawyer.

East Cairo prosecution had accused Ahmed Abdallah of inciting demonstrations and spreading false news regarding Tiran and Sanafir islands demarcation agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Hanafi based his complaint on Article 9 of from the Egyptian Constitution which stipulates that “Every citizen who is arrested or detained and his freedom is restricted, should be treated in a manner that preserves his human dignity, and he shouldn’t be harmed physically or morally and he shouldn’t be detained in places which are not in line with prisons regulations.”

According to Abdallah’s defense, the assault on him falls under Article 129 of the Penal Code which states that “the legislator put as a condition that the perpetrator in cruelty crimes must be a civil servant or a citizen assinned to perform a public service.”

Accordingly, the incident presented lies under the crime of cruelty, according to Article 129 penalties regarding every act that would harm the victim’s honor, or hurt him. The Article provision includes spitting on someone’s face, throwing anything on him, harassing him, harming him lightly, or beating him.

The lawyer of Ahmed Abdallah also called for referring him to the forensic medicine to prove the police officers’ assault in the police station.