Egyptian Police Officers Sentenced to Prison for Abuse

On November 5, a Cairo court sentenced police Capt. Islam Nabih and Reda Fathi, a noncommissioned officer, to three years in prison for sexually assaulting `Imad al-Kabir, a microbus driver from the Giza neighborhood of Bulaq al-Dakrur, while he was in police custody in January 2006. Human Rights Watch documented al-Kabir’s case and campaigned heavily on his behalf. Our statements resulted in increased media attention and helped create pressure to prosecute the officers. Human Rights Watch also attended the trial of the officers who tortured him. Going forward, we will continue to urge Egyptian authorities to change their penal code to incorporate international definitions of torture and to reform laws that permit incommunicado detention, a practice that makes it easy to mistreat suspects with impunity and has enabled torture to become commonplace.