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VII. Failure to Provide Adequate Medical Treatment

Four individuals who suffered serious injuries from beatings during arrest and while in custody—Manal Khalid, Ziyad al-`Ulaimi, Muhammad Zaki, and Gamal `Eid—told Human Rights Watch that the authorities failed to provide access while in custody to medical treatment for their injuries.

Manal Khalid, who was beaten around the head by security officers and sustained serious injuries to her right eye (see above), said she had first been taken to what she later learned was the `Abdin police station, where she was handcuffed to a staircase railing and blindfolded for four hours. “The area round my right eye was bruised and swollen,” she said, “and my mouth and nose were bleeding. A woman who knew me who was also arrested was brought in and saw me and screamed when she saw the shape I was in.” Over the course of the next twenty-four hours she was moved to several different areas of detention, and during her interrogation she described the beating to the prosecutor. “On Sunday they sent Ziyad, Muhammad Zaki and myself to the local health inspectorate. The doctor there examined us and took a report.” (Detainees are routinely examined by prison medical personnel for the purpose of recording their condition upon entry into custody.) She said that it was three days later, on Wednesday, when she was examined by a doctor but for the purpose of documenting injuries rather than providing treatment. Khalid told Human Rights Watch that this examination in any case was not very thorough. “She spent more time trying to talk us out of our politics than inspecting our wounds,” she said. “She tried to intimidate us by telling us about other cases referred to her from State Security with much more serious injuries.” Neither doctor offered any treatment, she said, though the health inspector did provide a painkiller.91

Muhammad Zaki, whose injury was eventually diagnosed as a fractured clavicle (see above), also said that the group had been examined on Sunday, March 23, at the health inspectorate but received no treatment. This was prior to their transfer to al-Khalifa police station, where they were subjected to further beatings (see above). He said that he got some ointments for bruises and a painkiller at the Tora prison clinic, but was not X-rayed until he saw a doctor on Wednesday for the purpose of documenting his injuries. “They told me not to move my arm,” he said, “but did not give me any bandage [to immobilize it].”92

Ziyad al-`Ulaimi told Human Rights Watch that the group of detainees did not request treatment at the health inspectorate on Sunday, March 23, because of constant pressure by the transfer officer to hurry so that he could return them to prison. This was the same officer [the station head] who subsequently that afternoon instigated and oversaw the beatings of these prisoners at al-Khalifa police station. Like Muhammad Zaki, al-`Ulaimi was not X-rayed until Wednesday, at the time of the medical forensic examination. “They didn’t give us any painkillers,” he said. “Getting medicines required bribes.”93

Gamal `Eid told Human Rights Watch that aside from some ointments and painkillers he received at the prison clinic, he received no medical treatment for injuries he sustained during the beatings at al-Khalifa police station on Sunday (see above), although the clinic staff did record his injuries in the prison clinic files. When he finally appeared before a judge on Tuesday, March 25, 2003, he requested that a forensic doctor document his injuries but the judge ignored his request. 94 He did not see a forensic doctor until after his release, and then only after he filed a separate, formal torture complaint with the prosecution office.  According to `Eid, the medical report found evidence of contusions on his head, back, and left arm seven days after the beating.95




91 Human Rights Watch interview, Cairo, April 1, 2003.

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

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

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

95 HRW telephone interview, October 24, 2003.


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November 2003