Egypt police headquarters turn into torture camps for university students

Two Egyptian police headquarters in Cairo have recently turned into torture camps for anti-coup university students, human rights activists and eyewitnesses reported.

A written testimony leaked from Nasr City Police Headquarters in Cairo revealed shocking details about the torture of university students by Egyptian police to solicit false confessions. Omar Gamal Ibrahim Al Shoeikh, locked up in the Second Nasr City Police Headquarters, wrote to his lawyer that he was subjected to brutal torture by police officers after his arrest on his way home from college.

Omar narrates that an officer stopped him at gunpoint while he was heading to his house in Nasr City, beat him, and stole his wallet and cell phone. He was transported to the police headquarters and locked up on the second floor of the building, in a detention room called “the fridge” by inmates.

According to Omar, he was handcuffed and tied up from behind, his eyes covered with a red piece of cloth, and he was given electric shocks all over his body. During torture, Omar was interrogated about student protests, particularly who organizes and funds them. When the torturers didn’t elicit satisfactory responses, they used more painful means of torture such as electric shocks on sensitive parts of Omar’s body, such as his underarms, stomach, fingertips, and private parts. He was also beaten with a stick on his back and buttocks.

Omar added that police officers used sexual assaults as a tool to humiliate him: “Sexual harassment was used repeatedly. Officers groped my private parts during urinal.” After a round of sexual torture, officers forced him to record a video testimony where they dictated him what to say. Then he was detained in solitary confinement until he appears before prosecutors.

Political activist Haitham Ghonim confirmed in press statements that Omar’s colleagues visited him last Tuesday and found that he was unable to talk and stood with difficulty. He asked them to hire a lawyer for him because he did not have a lawyer during prosecution interrogation. He also wanted to see his mother.

Another detainee in a second police headquarters in Nasr City said in press statements that police officers did not only use torture, but also coerced students to sings pro-Sisi songs to stop the torture. The student spoke on condition of anonymity.

He pointed out that the number of detained students was higher than 50, then went down to 35 as some students were released after singing a pro-Sisi song as a condition for their release.

Aisha Gouda, one female student recently released, also revealed details about police officers mistreatment of detainees. She said that in Al-Salam detention camp, officers forced female students to watch their male colleagues while being beaten after forcibly taking off their clothes. She added that officers groped them through the windows while they were sleeping, and forced them to sing a pro-Sisi song.