A New Regeni Killed after Being Tortured by Egyptian Police Forces

A new Regeni was found dead in Cairo after being arrested by the Egyptian police forces. The body of medical student Ahmed Medhat appeared at Cairo’s main morgue shortly after his arrest by the police forces.

The medical student’s family accused the police of torturing him to death, according to al-Arabi al-Jadeed.

According to Medhat’s family, the police arrested him early on Monday morning to enforce a two-year in-absentia prison sentence that he has received in February 2016 for protest-related charges the previous year.

Mohamed Medhat, the victim’s brother, said, “My brother died at 11:30pm at the hands of Egypt’s policemen.”

However, the police say that Medhat was arrested in a brothel in Nasr City and died during a police raid. The police claimed that Medhat tried to escape from the police and jumped from the second floor of the raided building.

The prosecution is currently investigating alleged death of the medical student after his arrest.

But his family says that the prosecution does not want to enclose their accusation that the police killed their son.

The victim’s brother also mentioned on a post in the social media that he found that his brother’s skull had been broken and his nose was bleeding.

A photo of Medhat’s body was circulated showing bruises on his face which reminded the Egyptians of Khaled Said who was tortured to death and his case led to the outbreak of January Revolution in 2011.

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Daily News Egypt reported that the death of Medhat sparked outrage among circles of students, who said that the Ahmed was “religious” and would never go to a brothel. They added that: “So Khaled Said [a torture victim who was beaten to death by two officers] was accused of selling narcotics; and the police have accused Medhat of visiting brothels.”

In fact, it’s a common precedent in cases of death in detention or in police custody in Egypt, the Ministry of Interior and the pro-regime media usually run to state accusations (criminal or moral) and former charges of the victims.In the same context, the Ministry of Interior always denies that it practices any kind of force against detainees or prisoners.

However, Egypt has witnessed massive crackdown against human rights since the military coup in 2013 led by al-Sisi against the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. Hundreds of cases of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances occurred on a regular basis till they became a common phenomenon in the Egyptians daily life.

According to Amnesty International report in 2015, torture and other ill-treatment of criminal suspects were “routinely used to extract confessions and punish and humiliate suspects”, reportedly leading to several deaths of detainees. The report added, “Deaths in detention were reported, with some apparently attributable to torture or other ill-treatment or inadequate conditions in police stations.”

Moreover, the crackdown on human rights didn’t exclude foreigners from the same fate of hundreds of Egyptians. Last January-on the fifth anniversary of January Revolution- the Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni has disappeared and his body was found on the side of the Cairo-Alexandria highway on February 3 by passengers on a bus that had broken down, according to a police source.

The body showed signs of torture, including cigarette burns and beatings, said Egyptian forensics officials. Regeni’s mother addressed the Italian parliament saying that her son’s injuries were so bad and she identified him only by the tip of his nose.

A special report released by Reuters  revealed that the Italian Ph.D. student Giulio Regeni made a Skype call from his Cairo flat to an academic in Germany, ten days before he vanished, and he sounded anxious.

Georgeta Auktor, a researcher at the German Development Institute in Bonn, where Regeni had spent a few weeks in 2015, said, “We did not talk very much as it was expected that we will catch up at some point later.”

“He said he feels he needs to be careful where he goes in the city and whom he meets.” However, they did not speak again, reported Reuters.

It seems that Regeni felt that he was followed by the Egyptian security forces.

In fact, this Skype call matches what has been revealed when some Egyptian sources stated that the mobile call logs analysis in Egypt has proved that Regeni was followed by the Egyptian security forces the day he disappeared, according to AL-Khaleejonline. There was no official comment from Egypt regarding this information.

It is noteworthy that torture and police brutality was one of the main reasons behind the uprising that toppled veteran dictator Hosni Mubarak on 25 January 2011, along with economic deterioration and lack of freedom.

Ahmed Medhat’s death has caused a great outrageous on the social media as people condemned the crime and  questioned al -Sisi ‘ rule and legitimacy.

Some Arab activists released a hashtag #Al-Sisi _Leave in response to the medical student’s incident. Under this hashtag, April 6th Movement tweeted”#AL-Sisi _Leave, Enough what Egypt is suffering: of political, social, and economic collapse. The ruling regime should leave the future for the youth.”

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In the same context, another tweet under the #Al-Sisi _Leave said, “Killing, Arrest, Fire, Corruption, Diseases, Poverty, and injustice..What is left to be like Syria and Iraq?”

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