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22-year-old died in hospital after he was tortured and dumped
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
CAIRO (AFP)
An Egyptian man died on Tuesday from injuries sustained after three days of alleged torture in a police station, a security source told AFP.
Ahmed Saber Saad, 22, had been held on suspicion of drug possession but was released by the prosecution because of lack of evidence, the source said.
But the police ignored the release order and kept him at a station in Cairo's twin city of Giza for three days.
"He was beaten and tortured for three days before being thrown out onto the street," the source said on condition of anonymity.
"He was found by local residents and taken to a nearby hospital, but he died a day later from his injuries," the source said.
Prosecutor general Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has ordered an immediate investigation into the death, the source said.
Saad's case comes a day after an Egyptian court sentenced two policemen, Islam Nabih, 28 and Reda Fatih, 25, to three years for sodomizing minibus driver Imad al-Kabir with a stick.
The incident was caught on a mobile video camera and widely distributed sparking nationwide outrage.
Rights groups say that torture by security is widespread in Egypt and that most cases go unpunished.
In August, a 13-year-old boy died in hospital four days after police brought him there because he lost consciousness while in their custody on a theft charge.
In that case, the interior ministry said burns on the boy's body were accidental and that he had died from a pulmonary infection.
Last month an Egyptian court acquitted a state security officer of charges of torturing to death a man he had arrested in 2003. The autopsy said he died because of torture by electric shock combined with a weak heart.
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