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IV. Excessive Use of Force Against Demonstrators

Egyptian plainclothes and uniformed security forces on March 21 physically assaulted demonstrators and passers-by who had gathered in and around al-Tahrir Square and the Bar Association building. Uniformed security forces also failed to intervene to protect demonstrators and passers-by from the improper use of force by their colleagues.

Al-Tahrir Square

The police violence against demonstrators in al-Tahrir Square on March 21 began prior to the arrival of demonstrators walking from the vicinity of al-Azhar. Manal Khalid, a 32-year-old television director and antiwar activist, told Human Rights Watch that she had gone to al-Tahrir Square at about noon and that only a few people had started to gather there. “I decided to get some food and come back around 1 p.m.,” she said.

I heard someone shout, “There’s Manal.” I tried to run but about fifteen plainclothes security cornered me near the Hardee’s restaurant. They tried to drag me to a black jeep [across the street] close to the AUC [American University in Cairo] gate. Some passersby stopped when they saw me resisting and being beaten, and tried to interfere, including two girls who were arrested with me when they refused to leave. Then a senior state security officer [whom I recognized] joined the others and started punching me in the face and different parts of my body, and insulting me with filthy language. He handcuffed and dragged me into the jeep and then blindfolded me. He said he was going to strip off my clothes and frame me in a prostitution case.

They were after some people in particular, and I was one of them. I had seen [this officer] at earlier demonstrations and the day before this, on Thursday [March 20], he pushed me when I tried to start a mini-demonstration outside the police cordon. I asked about him, and people told me his name. I filed a complaint against him in the prosecution report. After I was released he called and wanted to meet with me but I refused.18 

Other victims of police beatings appear to have been chosen at random.  Mona Mo`in Mina, a 45-year-old pediatrician, told Human Rights Watch that she arrived at al-Tahrir Square at about 2:30 p.m. that afternoon. “There was a huge security presence,” she said, “and I could not get inside to the demonstration.” She was near the Hardee’s restaurant, on the southern perimeter of the square, and saw four or five men, not in uniforms, beating a woman in her fifties.

We have a rule in demonstrations: we don’t ignore someone being beaten. I and several others tried to intervene, but I was the only one who kept at it. They punched us and dragged us to a police van on a side street. There were about thirty of us in the van, eight of us women. They were pretty brutal with the women, especially the young ones, dragging them by their clothes, ripping the veil off one. It was not painful but very humiliating. They took us to several police stations but there was no room. We ended up at Dahir station in central Cairo. When they brought us in they slapped the first boy in the line. They told us to shut up and that anyone who spoke would be ripped to pieces and buried there. Later we were taken out and driven around to many police stations, finally ending up at the Central Security camp at al-Darassa. We were not mistreated there, but they did not let us sleep. They kept calling us upstairs to ask us again our name, occupation, you know. The next morning they started releasing the young girls—they were in their late teens. They kept five of us [women]. They seemed to be releasing those who had never been arrested before. This was not my first arrest, but it was my first night in prison.19

Hoda, a Cairo resident who did not want to give her real name, told Human Rights Watch that she had been walking through al-Tahrir Square that Friday morning, unaware that demonstrations were expected. “Suddenly two guys tried to grab me,” she said. “They held me and took my name and address and tried to shove me into a police van. By coincidence a reporter nearby was taking notes and asked the plainclothesmen what they were doing with me. They let me out.”20 Hoda said that later in the morning she saw six or seven other people beaten and arrested in the street near al-Tahrir.

Mirvat, an Egyptian journalist who did not want her real name used, told Human Rights Watch that she had been at al-Azhar mosque in the early afternoon but couldn’t see much because of the heavy security. Police and the demonstrators were throwing stones at each other, she said, but she couldn’t tell who had started it. She went home, she said, but headed for al-Tahrir Square after seeing the violent encounters there on al-Jazeera television. She said she arrived at `Abd al-Mun`im Riyad Square, just to the north of al-Tahrir, where Gala’ and Ramsis streets end at the Nile corniche, at about 4:45 p.m.

There were no cars moving or people in al-Tahrir, only police, thousands of them, countless [armored vehicles] and police vans from where I was all the way across to the AUC gate. I saw ponds of blue water, from the police water cannons. And there were dozens of men in plainclothes, with their truncheons. They looked like they were furious. As I approached I saw them attacking a group of ten or fifteen youths, swinging their truncheons, I didn’t see how that started, but from what I could see these youths were no threat to anyone. The police just stood by as the plainclothes security attacked them. This was very violent. I had never seen anything like it. Then I saw several cars try to drive out of the cordoned area. The thugs attacked the cars with their sticks, and in one case smashed the rear window.

This reporter was told by security personnel that she could not walk across al-Tahrir Square, and instead walked along Mahmud Bassiuni Street toward Tal`at Harb Square.

At two places along Mahmud Bassiouni Street I saw sixty or so of these plainclothes thugs with truncheons, just sitting on low walls, and another hundred or so around Tal`at Harb Square. I recognized one of them—he parks cars in the area around my office. He was carrying a metal pipe. I was surprised to see him there and asked him what he was doing. He said he also worked for the mabahith [Mabahith Amn al-Dawla, or State Security Investigations]. There were many police dogs and riot police as well as the thugs. I backtracked down Mahmud Basssiuni Street and headed to al-Tahrir by some side streets. They let me walk through their lines. “You’ve been beating people today?” I asked. “Yes, believe me,” one said, a low-ranking officer in his 20s. They all looked exhausted. Many were sitting. The thugs ranged in age from mid-20s to early 40s.21

Bar Association

The Bar Association, also known as the Lawyers’ Syndicate, is less than a kilometer from al-Tahrir Square and adjacent to the Journalists’ Syndicate. By late afternoon lawyers had gathered at the Bar Association to discuss steps to take on behalf of arrested demonstrators. Activists and members of some opposition parties, including several members of parliament, also gathered in the front of the Bar Association building.

Mirvat, the Egyptian reporter, told Human Rights Watch that she arrived there around 6:30 p.m.:

There were uniformed police surrounding the building and about two or three hundred persons sitting on the pavement in front of the entrance. Some of them I recognized as activists involved in calling for the demonstrations. They were chanting slogans demanding the release of those who had been arrested. Until then I hadn’t heard of the mass arrests in al-Tahrir. The scene at the Bar Association was pretty boring, actually, and I had no problem joining the group sitting in front and getting the run-down on what had happened. But people were saying that they expected trouble. They were worried because there was no television media there. They asked me to call some friends in TV. I called a friend at al-Jazeera.22   

Sayyid `Abd al-Ghani, a Bar Association member, told Human Rights Watch that at around 6:30 p.m. plainclothes security officers attacked demonstrators with clubs. “Some of the protestors tried to find refuge behind our gates,” he said. “The Bar Association is considered a place of refuge.” Security officers also attacked some lawyers who had gone out to try to protect the demonstrators, he said. “Then a group of security officers and police entered the [Lawyers’] Syndicate and barred the gates, locking everyone inside.”23

Muhammad Raghib, a 25-year-old journalist for the newspaper of the left-nationalist Tagammu` Party, told Human Rights Watch that he had been at the Bar Association sit-in since about 6 p.m. “We were sitting there with our arms linked together,” he said.

The police around the building were in uniforms and carrying shields. It was not particularly tense. But then some other police, maybe fifteen of them, not in uniform, came and barred the entrance. They said nothing. No announcement to disperse. All of a sudden they came in and started beating people. They were after certain individuals, and then they would also beat the others trying to defend them until it became a general melee. I couldn’t tell who was in charge. They made no attempt to arrest people before attacking them. I was arrested too, but I was one of the random ones.24 

Hoda, the Cairo resident who asked that her real name not be used, said that she had also gone from al-Tahrir Square to the Bar Association. “A group of us were standing in front of the building,” she said.

The uniformed police made a circle around us. Plainclothes police inside the circle with us started picking people—if they didn’t like your looks they would drag you out of the circle to a police van. They picked a friend of ours. Four of us followed, shouting, “If you take him, take us.” They started hitting us. They hit us with sticks and one girl they took her by the hair and dragged her along, kicking her. They touched her all over—they touched women all over, feeling their breasts. 

The journalist Mirvat said that prior to this she had walked into the Bar Association premises and around to the back where there was an outdoor tea garden. She said there were maybe a dozen people in the garden, and she saw about 200 people on `Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat Street, which runs along the southwest perimeter of the Bar Association and is separated from the garden by a short wall.

I couldn’t tell who they were but then a bunch of them ran around front to where the sit-in was and I went back to the front myself. Two men were barring the gate shut with long boards. Most of the demonstrators were on the outside, and no one could get in or out. “Get down or we’ll arrest you,” one shouted. Then I heard screaming from the garden. Someone was shouting that they were beating Hamdeen Sabahi [a member of parliament] so I ran back there. I saw him [Sabahi] sitting in a chair in `Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat Street, blood streaming down his face. He looked semi-conscious. A man was lying in the garden bleeding profusely. My friend from al-Jazeera came over the wall into the garden. She said the thugs had run at her and snatched her bag and took the videocamera from her cameraman.25 

Mirvat told Human Rights Watch that, as she pieced together what happened, the plainclothes police were beating the man whom she had found in the garden, 40-year-old Tariq `Abd al-Fattah. The member of parliament, Hamdeen Sabahi, 49, had come out of an adjacent building, the Journalists’ Syndicate, on hearing the clash and tried to intervene to protect `Abd al-Fattah when he was himself attacked.

Muhammad Zaki, a lawyer in his early thirties, told Human Rights Watch that when Sabahi tried to intervene to stop the beating of `Abd al-Fattah, officers pulled him across the street by his legs. When Zaki tried to intervene, he said, police beat him as well, fracturing his clavicle.

I was caught by five or six men and thrown on the street. They took two wooden chairs and broke them on me while I lay on the ground. I was lying on my right side. They said, “Turn him over on the other side.” I decided this was going to last too long so I pretended to lose consciousness, but when they picked me up by my arms and legs the pain from the fracture caused me to scream, so they saw I was not unconscious and started beating me again with the chair legs.26 

MP Mohamed Farid Hassanein, 63, was also beaten that day near the Bar Association. Yahya Fikri, an engineer, was also at the Bar Association that day and told Human Rights Watch that he saw four or five officers drag Hassanein across the street while others beat him with batons.27 Both Hassanein and Sabahi were arrested two days later—Hassanein at Misr International Hospital, according to his daughter, and Sabahi at his home.28

Gamal `Eid, 39, was one of several lawyers beaten and arrested at the Bar Association. `Eid is a member of the Bar Association’s Freedoms Committee and had served as a defense lawyer for demonstrators arrested in earlier protests.29

I was in the Bar Association, a group of us [lawyers] were meeting to assess the information we were getting about who was arrested and where they were taken. We heard the disturbance outside and went to the front. I saw the plainclothes police beating the demonstrators and I tried to help [protect them]. And I saw security go in the [Bar Association] cafeteria [garden]. Ahmad al-‘Azazi [one of the plainclothes officers] pointed out certain people to go after. Three or four of them grabbed me. At first I didn’t know I was being arrested. Some of them who were holding others let go and came over to join those beating us.

‘Eid said that security forces who beat him then shoved him into a canvas-covered police truck on `Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat Street. “From there we saw the beatings and arrests continue,” he said.30

Yasir Farag, another lawyer in his early thirties, told Human Rights Watch that plainclothes officers jumped over the wall into the garden area and after barring the door started beating people randomly. “I tried to break away but seven of them grabbed me and beat me and were pushing me toward a police van,” he said. “Then Ahmad al-`Azazi told them to wait and he hit me in the head with his walkie-talkie. He said he was beating me because of ‘all this.’”31 

Ziyad al-`Ulaimi, a 23-year-old lawyer, told Human Rights Watch that he had been in the garden with Gamal `Eid and Yasir Farag collecting the names of those who had been arrested earlier in the day. Four policemen charged in and pulled them out. “They tried to force Gamal into a van,” he said, “and when they hit him I intervened. Someone came at me from behind and used his truncheon on my head and shoulder, forearm, and leg. That’s when they broke my arm.”32

`Amr Muhammad `Abd al-Latif and Walid `Abd al-Razzaq Fu’ad, the students who were arrested on April 12 and released on April 15 (see above), were also beaten while being taken into detention. One of them told Human Rights Watch that he and his companions had been beaten at the time of arrest.

It was Saturday at about noon. We were walking over to the Journalists’ Syndicate to go to the demonstration and eight or nine plainclothes men grabbed us and dragged us over to the police wagon. They hit us on our backs and in our faces and then handcuffed us and threw us inside. They didn’t identify themselves or say anything to us when they took us.33 

Use of Excessive Force Under International Law

Egyptian security officers and plainclothes agents used force against demonstrators on March 21 and in subsequent arrests in connection with the demonstrations that was contrary to international law enforcement standards and Egyptian law.  The U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (Code of Conduct) enjoins those who exercise police powers to protect “all persons against illegal acts” and, in performance of their duty, to “respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons.”34 According to article 3 of the Code of Conduct, “law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty.”35 The Code of Conduct also states that “no law enforcement official may inflict, instigate or tolerate any act of torture or any other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” and that “law enforcement officials shall ensure the full protection of the health of persons in their custody and in particular, shall take immediate action to secure medical attention whenever required.”36

The U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms provide that “[l]aw enforcement officials, in carrying out their duty, shall, as far as possible, apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force” and may use force “only if other means remain ineffective or without any promise of achieving the intended result.”37 When the use of force is unavoidable, law enforcement officials must “(a) exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legitimate objective to be achieved; (b) minimize damage and injury…; and (c) ensure that assistance and medical aid are rendered to any injured or affected persons at the earliest possible moment.”38 “In the dispersal of assemblies that are unlawful but non-violent,” the Basic Principles state, “law enforcement officials shall avoid the use of force or, where that is not practicable, shall restrict such force to the minimum extent necessary.”39 According to the Basic Principles, “Governments shall ensure that arbitrary or abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offence under their law.”40

Egyptian security forces, in attempting to prevent demonstrators from assembling at al-Tahrir Square on March 21 and subsequently attacking persons gathered outside the Bar Association building, failed to follow applicable Egyptian law enforcement regulations, namely Ministerial Order 193/1955. This regulation, “pertaining to public gatherings and demonstrations in public thoroughfares,” requires that the authorities audibly warn persons who have gathered, specifying a reasonable time to disperse from the scene and directions and roads to be used to leave.41 This order states that if those who have gathered to do not disperse, a second warning “has to be given” which warns that the security forces may use tear gas and truncheons to implement the order to disperse. 42 However, this regulation itself appears to be at variance with international law enforcement standards by also authorizing the use of light firearms “aimed at the legs” if the crowd “refuses to disperse.”43




18 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, April 1, 2003. The prosecutor-general is obliged under law to open a separate investigation into allegations of torture when a complaint is lodged. In this case, Manal Khalid made such a complaint when she was brought before the prosecutor general for interrogation on March 22.

19 Human Rights Watch interview, Mona Mo`in Mina, Heliopolis, March 31, 2003.

20 Human Rights Watch interview, name withheld on request, Cairo, March 22, 2003.

21 Human Rights Watch interview, name withheld on request, Cairo, April 2, 2003.

22 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, April 2, 2003.

23  Human Rights Watch interview, Sayyid `Abd al-Ghani, Cairo, March 22, 2003.

24 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, April 2, 2003.

25 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, April 2, 2003.

26 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, March 29, 2003.

27 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, March 29, 2003.

28 Written communication from Nadia Farid, April 5, 2003; Human Rights Watch interview with Ayman Nour, member of parliament, Cairo, March 30, 2003.

29 `Eid has also worked as a consultant for Human Rights Watch.

30 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, March 29, 2003.

31 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, March 29, 2003.

32 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, March 29, 2003.

33 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, April 16, 2003.  The student who spoke with Human Rights Watch did not wish to be identified.

34 “U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (Code of Conduct),” G.A. res. 34/169, annex, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 186, U.N. Doc. A/34/46 (1979) at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_comp42.htm,  (retrieved Sept. 20, 2003).

35 Ibid. The official commentary published as part of the Code of Conduct notes that “national law ordinarily restricts the use of force by law enforcement officials in accordance with a principle of proportionality” and stresses that while law enforcement officials may authorize use of force “as is reasonably necessary under the circumstances for the prevention of crime or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders, no force going beyond that may be used.”  Article 3. 

36 Ibid.  Article 3 (a).                               

37 “U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials,” Adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August to 7 September 1990, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.144/28/Rev.1 at 112 (1990), principle 4 at www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_comp43.htm, (retrieved Sept. 20, 2003).

38 Ibid., principle 5.

39 Ibid., principle 13.

40 Ibid., principle 7.

41 Ministerial Order 193/1955, article 2, para. 3, Egyptian Proceedings, June 6, 1955, issue number 44, translated by Human Rights Watch. 

42 Ibid., para. 4.

43 Ibid., para. 5-7.


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November 2003