Detainees seen in videos allegedly showing torture in a Cairo police station inflicted their injuries on themselves, according to Egyptian authorities, who have charged the prisoners with spreading “fake news.” Up to 13 people detained in El-Salam First police station for unknown petty crimes made multiple videos that they say show the abuse they suffered at the hands of police officers and security forces.
The videos recorded last November, and obtained by the Guardian, appeared to show detainees hung in a stress position, with their hands fastened behind their backs. A second video appeared to show multiple detainees talking to the camera as they pointed to their injuries, including large bruises and head wounds. After the footage was released online, Egypt’s public prosecution claimed that the detainees had “inflicted injuries on themselves,”, using a coin. It added that authorities confiscated the mobile phones used to make the videos. Amr Magdi, of Human Rights Watch, who reviewed the videos for the Guardian, said, “Based on what I saw in the videos, they seemed authentic. Yet the prosecutor describes the injuries they sustained as being inflicted by the detainees themselves using a coin, which is completely illogical and doesn’t really match the kind of beating marks and wounds seen in the videos.” He said, “I find the prosecutors’ statement—disappointing doesn’t even cover it—I think the right word is a laughable attempt to cover up police abuses.”
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