Cairo: 13 February 2019

Today, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) filed a legal complaint with the head of South Giza Prosecution against Haram Police Station’s officers over the attack on leftist pharmacist Gamal Abdel-Fattah yesterday inside the police station.

In its complaint No. 840 of 2019 (South Giza), ANHRI said: “On 12 February 2019, and inside Haram Police Station, Dr. Gamal Abdel-Fattah, along with other defendants involved in Case 1739/2018 State Security, were waiting for the transport vehicle to carry them from the police station to “Kilo 10.5″ Giza Central Prison, after considering their detention renewal last Monday. When the vehicle was delayed, one of the defendants asked one of the police station’s officers about the reason behind the delay, but he didn’t answer him. Then the defendant asked the police officers if he can meet the police station’s commissioner, but they verbally insulted him and beat him with their feet, which prompted Dr. Abdel-Fattah to show his objection to such form of inhuman treatment, and as a result, the police officers severely beat him on his backbone, dragged him, and the other defendant named Khaled Mahmoud (an activist), along the ground till the door of the jail.

Since Dr. Gamal Abdel Fattah is an elderly man (74 years old) and suffers from several aging-related-conditions, including blood pressure problems and diabetes, he feels a semi fracture in his backbone as a result of the attack.

Filing a complaint with South Giza Prosecution’s head, the Arabic Network of Human Rights Information (ANHRI) called for opening a swift and urgent investigation into the attack of Dr. Gamal Abdel-Fattah at the hands of some officers at Haram Police Station, and questioning him, as victim, about the incident of assault inside the aforementioned police station.

ANHRI also called on the head of South Giza Prosecution to urgently refer him to a specialist doctor to examine the injuries Abdel-Fattah has sustained as a result of this attack.

It’s worth mentioning that on Sunday 27 January 2019, a police force, accompanied by some members affiliated to the National Security apparatus, arrested Dr. Gamal Abdel-Fattah, activists Khaled Mahmoud and Khaled Bassiouni and lawyer Mohab El-Ebrashi, and took them to unknown destination where he kept missing for 72 hours, until he appeared at the State Security Prosecution on 30 January 2019, as an accused pending case No. 1739 of 2018 Supreme State Security Investigations. Abdel-Fattah was charged by the Prosecution with joining a terrorist group, gathering and misusing social media. These charges are unsubstantiated. The security forces have constantly fabricated them against critics and opponents to put them in prison for many months or even years, in the form of pre-trial detention that has become a tool of punishment in light of the widespread impunity in Egypt.