Tortured body of Egyptian teen found 2 days after arrest

The body of an Egyptian teenager was discovered this week bearing extreme “torture marks”, in another case of alleged police brutality.

Nineteen-year-old Tharwat Sameh was arrested before his body was discovered two days later on a street in the town of Fayyum, south of Cairo. Sameh’s body showed extensive bruising, burn marks and signs he had been whipped extensively after his images were uploaded online using the Arabic hashtag #Tharwat_Sameh.

اعتقل واختفى من يومين،لقوه النهاردة الصبح جثة عليها تعذيب وحشي في طريق الفيوم الصحراوي، تم تداول صورته إلى أن تم التعرف عليه،اسمه:ثروت سامح pic.twitter.com/EIUCcWhOzJ

— Abdelrahman.Fares (@abdofares) July 24, 2017

Sameh’s case follows that of 43-year-old Gamal Aweida who was arrested on 17 July and died only 15 hours later. It is still unclear why either of the men was arrested.

Amnesty International called for an immediate investigation into the death of Aweida and the “strong evidence” of his torture.

Read: Torture in Egypt up by 16 per cent

Egypt has seen numerous cases of torture and detainees dying whilst in custody. The most publicised case was that of Italian student Gulio Regeni, whose tortured body was discovered, dumped in the outskirts of Cairo. Regeni was arrested by Egyptian authorities for his investigation into street vendor unionists and is believed to have been tortured to death despite claims by Egypt he died in a road traffic accident.

Egypt launched a heavy crackdown on dissent in the country following a military coup in 2011. Thousands have been arrested and sentenced in shoddy trials on trumped up charges.