IN what marks a new turn in a case that has kept the public busy for days now, Egypt’s Chief Prosecutor on Tuesday ordered the exhumation of a man who was allegedly killed by police in the coastal city of Alexandria so that a new autopsy could be performed
The Prosecutor assigned a three-member panel from the city’s Forensic Medicine Authority with examining the body of the 28-year old man to determine the exact cause of his death. Khalid Saeed, an Internet activist, died outside a cybercafé in Alexandria last Thursday, but an initial forensic report said he had choked on a joint when police attempted to arrest him.
Witnesses, however, said two policemen had approached him and argued with him before beating him to death.
Saeed’s case has become a rallying point for anti-Government protests and debates where activists and human rights organisations accuse the Government of continuing what they call a “systematic” policy of police torture and “disrespect” for human rights.
“This has always been the way with this country’s security men,” said Hafez Abu Saeda, the secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, by far this country’s biggest rights group. “Policemen treat the public so badly. The problem is that there’s not a political will to end police torture here,” he added during a recent talk show on the private freewheeling satellite channel On TV.
Amnesty International described Saeed’s killing as “brutal” and called for an immediate, full, and independent investigation into the case.
The Interior Ministry said Saeed failed to carry out his military service and had a record of convictions, charges his family members strongly deny.
The case has become a central point in anti-torture campaigns on facebook and other social networking websites.
Investigators currently interview witnesses to hear their accounts about the case.
