GOE STRUGGLING TO ADDRESS POLICE BRUTALITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 000079



SIPDIS



DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA, DRL/NESCA, INL AND INR/NESA

NSC FOR PASCUAL AND KUTCHA-HELBLING



E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2029

TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, EG

SUBJECT: GOE STRUGGLING TO ADDRESS POLICE BRUTALITY



REF: A. 08 CAIRO 2431

B. 08 CAIRO 2430

C. 08 CAIRO 2260

D. 08 CAIRO 783

E. 07 CAIRO 3214

F. 07 CAIRO 2845





Classified By: Ambassador Margaret Scobey for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).



1. (C) Summary and comment: Police brutality in Egypt

against common criminals is routine and pervasive. Contacts

describe the police using force to extract confessions from

criminals as a daily event, resulting from poor training and

understaffing. Brutality against Islamist detainees has

reportedly decreased overall, but security forces still

resort to torturing Muslim Brotherhood activists who are

deemed to pose a political threat. Over the past five years,

the government has stopped denying that torture exists, and

since late 2007 courts have sentenced approximately 15 police

officers to prison terms for torture and killings.

Independent NGOs have criticized GOE-led efforts to provide

human rights training for the police as ineffective and

lacking political will. The GOE has not yet made a serious

effort to transform the police from an instrument of regime

power into a public service institution. We want to continue

a USG-funded police training program (ref F),and to look for

other ways to help the GOE address police brutality. End

summary and comment.



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A Pervasive Problem

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2. (C) Torture and police brutality in Egypt are endemic and

widespread. The police use brutal methods mostly against

common criminals to extract confessions, but also against

demonstrators, certain political prisoners and unfortunate

bystanders. One human rights lawyer told us there is

evidence of torture in Egypt dating back to the times of the

Pharaohs. NGO contacts estimate there are literally hundreds

of torture incidents every day in Cairo police stations

alone. Egyptians are bombarded with consistent news reports

of police brutality, ranging from high profile incidents such

as accidental but lethal police shootings in Salamut and

Aswan this past fall (refs B and C) that sparked riots, to

reports of police officers shooting civilians following

disputes over traffic tickets. In November 2008 alone, there

were two incidents of off-duty police officers shooting and

killing civilians over petty disputes. The cases against

both officers are currently making their way through the

judicial system.



3. (C) NGO and academic contacts from across the political

spectrum report witnessing police brutality as part of their

daily lives. One academic at the GOE-funded Al-Ahram Center

who is a member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)

policy committee told us of accompanying his sister to a

Cairo police station to report her stolen purse. In front of

this academic, the police proceeded to beat a female suspect

into confessing about others involved in the theft and the

whereabouts of the stolen valuables. A contact from an

international NGO described witnessing police beat the

doorman of an upscale Cairo apartment building into

disclosing the apartment number of a suspect. Another

contact at a human rights NGO told us that her friends do not

report thefts from their apartments because they do not want

to subject "all the doormen" in the vicinity to police

beatings. She told us that the police's use of force has

pervaded Egyptian culture to the extent that one popular

television soap opera recently featured a police detective

hero who beats up suspects to collect evidence.



4. (C) Contacts attribute police brutality to poor training,

understaffing and official sanction. Human rights lawyer

Mohammed Zarea of the Arab Penal Reform Organization

speculated that officers routinely resort to brutality

because of pressure from their superiors to solve crimes. He

asserted that most officers think solving crimes justifies

brutal interrogation methods, and that some policemen believe

that Islamic law sanctions torture. Moataz El-Feigery of the

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies commented that a

culture of judicial impunity for police officers enables

continued brutality. According to El-Feigery, "Police

officers feel they are above the law and protected by the

public prosecutor." Human rights lawyer Negad Al-Borai of

the United Group attributed police brutality against common

criminals, including the use of electric shocks, to the

problem of demoralized officers facing long hours and their

own economic problems. He asserted that the police will even



beat lawyers who enter police stations to defend their

clients.



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Criminals and Islamists

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5. (C) Mohammed Zarea explained that since the GOE opened a

dialogue with formerly violent Islamists, such as the Islamic

Group, following the 1997 Luxor terrorist attacks, torture of

Islamists has decreased. Zarea, who defends several Islamist

detainees, claimed that the GOE now treats Islamists better

than common criminals. Some Islamist detainees are

"spoiled," he asserted, with regular access to visits from

friends and family, decent food and education. Before the

Luxor attacks, Zarea commented, the government would torture

Islamist detainees on a daily basis.



6. (C) Attorney Nasser Amin of the Arab Center for the

Independence of the Judiciary commented that the GOE is more

reluctant to torture Islamists, including Muslim Brotherhood

(MB) members, because of their persistence in making public

political statements, and their contacts with international

NGOs that could embarrass the regime. Amin speculated that

the exception to this rule is when MB members mobilize people

against the government in a way the regime deems threatening,

such as the April 6 Facebook strike (ref D). According to

Amin, the MB-affiliated blogger and "April 6 Movement" member

Mohammed Adel whom police arrested November 20 (ref A) falls

into this category, and the GOE is probably torturing him to

scare other "April 6" members into abandoning their political

activities. Amin's assessment tracks with "April 6" member

Ahmed Saleh's accounts of his own torture and the alleged

police sexual molestation of a female "April 6" activist this

past November (ref A). Bloggers close to Mohammed Adel told

us that following his arrest he was tortured severely with

electric shocks and needed to be hospitalized, but that

security forces stopped the torture when he began

cooperating.



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GOE Awareness of the Problem

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7. (C) Contacts agree that in the past five years, the

government has stopped denying that torture exists and has

taken some steps to address the problem. However, contacts

believe that the Interior Ministry lacks the political will

to take substantive action to change the culture of police

brutality. Nasser Amin asserted that following alleged

standing orders from the Interior Ministry between 2000 and

2006 for the police to shoot, beat and humiliate judges in

order to undermine judicial independence, the GOE made a

political decision in 2007 to allow the courts to sentence

police officers to short prison terms. Amin described the

2007 Imad El-Kebir case as a turning point in influencing the

government to permit the sentencing of police officers.

(Note: Per ref E, a court sentenced two police officers to

three years in prison in November 2007 for assaulting and

sodomizing bus driver Imad El-Kebir. The case gained

notoriety after a cell phone video recording of the torture

was posted on YouTube. End note.)



8. (C) An estimated 13 cases of officers accused of brutality

are currently working their way through the courts, and

judges have handed down moderate sentences, usually the

minimum three-year prison term, against policemen over the

past few months, often for heinous crimes. For example, in

October 2008, a court sentenced a policeman to three years in

prison for beating and drowning a fisherman. In November

2008, a court sentenced two policemen to three years in

prison for hooking a man to their car and dragging him to his

death. Mohammed Zarea characterized the sentences as

"light," in proportion to the crimes, but commented that any

prison sentences are an important development toward holding

the police responsible for crimes. Nasser Amin commented

that the prison sentences demonstrate that the GOE is

providing political space for judges to operate somewhat

independently, in response to criticism from foreign

governments and international NGOs. Hossam Bahgat of the

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights described the

sentences as important in drawing public attention to brutal

police crimes, and strengthening the hand of advocates who

call for reforming systemic problems within the police force.





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GOE Efforts

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9. (C) Ambassador Ahmed Haggag, who is detailed from the MFA

as the coordinator for the UNDP Human Rights Capacity

Building Project, described for us the organization's efforts

to train the Interior and Justice Ministries and the Public

Prosecutor on human rights issues through lectures and

workshops. Acknowledging that torture is a "problem, but not

a daily occurrence," Haggag said the UNDP trains police

officers on international human rights conventions, and is

trying to convince police officers to solve cases using

"legal and ethical means," instead of torture. Haggag told

us he "doubts there is still torture against political

prisoners." Staffers from the quasi-governmental National

Council for Human Rights described the council's workshops

for police officers where professors give lectures on human

rights law and prisoner psychology. NGO contacts have

privately criticized the UNDP project as ineffective,

complaining that it has banned credible human lawyers from

giving lectures to the police because of their political

opposition to the NDP, and instead invites MOI officials

complicit in torture to give human rights presentations.



10. (C) In late December 2008, the MOI announced it had

suspended 280 police officers for human rights violations and

fired 1,164 lower-ranking policemen for misconduct. Our NGO

contacts doubted that the disciplinary actions were human

rights related, and speculated that the officers were

probably involved in taking bribes and other illegal

activity. Nasser Amin asserted that this announcement does

not amount to a serious MOI human rights policy. Mohammed

Zarea expressed skepticism over whether these disciplinary

actions will result in long-term positive changes, especially

in light of rumors that one of the officers sentenced in the

2007 El-Kebir sodomy case will rejoin the police force as

soon as he leaves prison.



11. (C) Former senior Interior Ministry official Ihab

Youssef, Director of the NGO "The Police and the People for

Egypt" told us in late 2008 that his NGO did not receive many

proposals from the public in response to its solicitation for

ideas on developing projects to build trust between the

police and citizens. Youssef said that the NGO's Facebook

site, which provides a forum for the public to complain about

the police, has generated more interest. In September 2008,

Youssef publicly announced the formation of his NGO, which

counts establishment figures such as former FM Ahmed Maher

among its board members (ref C). Youssef does not receive

GOE funding for the NGO, and has turned to private Egyptian

businesses to raise money. Our NGO contacts have privately

dismissed Youssef's efforts as non-substantive "propaganda,"

and in a recent magazine article, one of Youssef's own board

members, retired Ambassador Shoukry Fouad, criticized the NGO

as unsuccessful.



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Comment

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12. (C) The GOE has not begun serious work on trying to

transform the police and security services from instruments

of power that serve and protect the regime into institutions

operating in the public interest, despite official slogans to

the contrary. It seems that the government would have the

strongest interest in preventing future accidental shootings

of innocents, such as the Salamut and Aswan incidents that

resulted in riots. We imagine that halting the torture of

common criminals, who are usually poor and voiceless, is

lower on the GOE's agenda. We want to continue USG-funded

police training, and we will look for ways to help Ihab

Youssef's NGO launch productive work.

SCOBEY