Rights groups condemn sexual assault of prisoner in Egypt 

A number of Egyptian human rights organisations have today condemned the sexual assault of Omar Mohamed Ali while in detention on 2 October by members of the police and in the presence of the prison investigations inspector. In a statement, the organisations which include the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms called on the Public Prosecution “to open a serious and transparent investigation into the incident, to seize the camera recordings inside the prison, and to bring those responsible to trial.”

The incident took place immediately after Omar Ali was transferred from Tora Prison to Badr Prison. While searching him, police officers asked him to undress, then three security personnel stripped him of his clothes by force while he was handcuffed, and repeatedly harassed him in the presence of a detective inspector and in a place where there are many surveillance cameras, the rights groups said.

“The sexual assault of Omar Ali is a serious indicator of the severity of the violations to which detainees are subjected inside prisons throughout Egypt,” the rights groups said in the statement.

An investigation has now been opened at New Cairo Administrative Prosecution Authority after the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression submitted a report to the General Attorney about the incident.

Ali was arrested in June 2015 along with two of his friends in front of a restaurant in Maadi. He was then disappeared for nearly two weeks, during which he was tortured inside the headquarters of the National Security Agency.

Weeks later, on 16 June, he was accused of revealing a military defence secret. The military court sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

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