March 13th, 2019,
The South Cairo Court section 22 Crimes of Helwan issued a sentence on March 5th 2019 to 6 months of imprisonment against the officer Captain Sherif Safi El Din after being convicted on charges of use of cruelty and causing permanent disability in the incident of torturing prisoner Mounir Yusri, in 15th May Central Prison south of Cairo, back in August 2017, resulting to a loss of vision in his left eye, according to official medical reports.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) considers such sentence not to constitute a sufficient deterrent to torture and other ill-treatments that occur repeatedly in places of detention in Egypt, according to previous ECRF’s reports and other Egyptian and international organizations, but rather it was just a peak of ashes in the eyes.
The torture incident dates back to August 26th, 2017, in 15 May Central Prison, where the detective officer Captain Sherif Safi Eldin started assaulting the prisoner Mounir Yusri and beating his left eye using an iron pipe after an argument erupted between them. According to the forensic report, the officer assaulted Mounir Yusri with a steel pipe with a blow landed on the left eye of the defendant causing an injury and an estimated 35% loss of vision in the left eye which caused permanent disability in the left eye and then he was transferred to his room 22 inside the prison.
Mounir Yusri did not receive treatment or medical assistance by the prison doctor until two days after the torture, then he was transferred to Helwan General Hospital on September 5th 2017, which in turn issued its report that he suffered a blunt trauma wound in the lower eyelid of the left eye, bleeding in conjunctiva, bleeding in the anterior chamber of the left eye, and no response to light in that eye.
Shortly after, Mounir was transferred to Shubra police station, which in turn transferred him to the National Center for Medicine and Ophthalmology in Road Al-Farag Clinic on September 6th 2017 that reported he had corneal opacity, uveal hemorrhage.
And then he was presented to Cairo University Hospital on September 18th 2017 which reported he suffered from rupture of the left eye.
He was presented again at Cairo University Hospital on November 16th 2017 which reported that the left eye was ruptured and that there was no perception of light in that eye.
Mounir’s mother submitted a communication to the Attorney General on September 17th 2017, the Public Prosecutor transferred the communication to the office of Road al-Farag which preserved the communication for lack of spatial jurisdiction. Then ECRF’s lawyers submitted a communication to the Helwan prosecutor on October 12th 2017 which was retained on November 2nd 2017 then the lawyers filed a grievance against the retention decision.
The Helwan prosecutor opened the investigation again and summoned the victim’s mother on December 14th 2017 to get her statement. The chief prosecutor summoned Mounir Yusri on December 17th 2017 and heard his statements about the violation. The investigation was then conducted by the Helwan prosecutor to call witnesses to hear their statements in that incident.
The officer in charge of the incident was then summoned and questioned as an accused then was charged with causing a permanent disability and cruelty. Finally, the case was referred to the Criminal Court on January 5th 2019.
The trial began on March 5th 2019 and a private attorney was present on behalf of Sherif Safi El Din, who was sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment.
ECRF is calling on the Egyptian Parliament to pass a new legislation defining the crime of torture in line with the definition of the United Nations Convention against Torture, which states that torture is:
“Any act that result in severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, intentionally inflicted upon a person for the purpose of obtaining from such person or from a third person, information or on a confession, or punishing him for an act he has committed or suspected of having committed, him or a third person to intimidate him or force him or any third person – or when such pain or suffering is inflicted for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, or instigated or approved by a public official or a person acting in an official capacity.” In addition to violation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 2002.
ECRF also calls for activating Article 1747 of the General Instructions of the Prosecution, which will enable the general counsel and the heads of the prosecution or whoever does their duty to inspect public prisons within their respective jurisdiction, as well as the heads of departmental prosecutors or their directors for the central prisons and their places of detention, at least once a month.