(Please be advised – some of the following content is graphic in nature)
Last month, videos appeared on the Internet showing Egyptian police officers torturing detainees in several police stations. The videos have been circulating Egyptian blogs, further contributing to the dialogue of remedying human rights violations and political corruption in the country. The subject of violence in police stations has long been a contentious issue in Egypt . The government functions under the 25-year ?State of Emergency? banner, which it uses as a justification to arrest whomever it suspects is a threat to national security.
However, since its embarkation on the Global War on Terror (GWOT) after the 9/11 attacks , the Egyptian government increased its list of suspects and has been engaging in torture tactics behind, what was then, closed doors. The police force feels that its techniques and super-crackdowns in the streets of Cairo will act as a deterrent for terrorists, but they are mistaken. The use of torture by Egyptian police could backfire, giving way to more terrorist activity that is less anti-Western and more anti-Egyptian in nature.
The Video and Government Response
One of the most graphic videos was of a suspect naked from the waist down lying on his back with his legs in the air and his hands bound behind him, being sodomized with a baton. The grainy images on the video indicate that a cell phone may have recorded it. Although this is not the first tape of purported police violence in Egypt to circulate the Internet, it is the most alarming because of its explicit sexual nature in such a conservative Muslim society. The charges against the victim, believed to be a minibus driver, have not been disclosed.
When confronted with allegations that torture is endemic, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior had responded with a flat denial. However, in light of the recent film evidence, the Ministry has issued statements claiming that none of the officers in the video were acting upon the orders of superiors. After interrogating several officers, state officials arrested the torturer in the video. The officer?s arrest has also made an appearance on Internet blogs and in video venues, such as YouTube, ?congratulating? Egypt on its steps toward confronting the subject of torture in prisons. The videos have circulated on the Internet despite the recent arrests of Egyptian bloggers, voicing their opinions about the lack of the human rights and need for democratic/political reform .
Police actions have been under scrutiny for a long time in Egypt; however, the appropriate institutions have been lacking in effectively remedying the source of the problem: government corruption and societal apathy. The Egyptian National Council for Human Rights (ENCHR), founded by the government in 2003 and headed by former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, has issued only two reports documenting complaints of human rights violations by the police, and the Council has not taken an aggressive, methodical approach to combating torture. This is likely due to the government?s oversight of a ?non-governmental institution.?
Implications on Terrorism
The Egyptian government and police force should not expect that by torturing its citizens accused of threatening national security, they would deter terrorists from conducting their own agendas effectively. On the contrary, it is highly likely that the circulation of these videos could result in both a violent backlash against Egyptian authorities and spark a general increase of violent attacks in Cairo. If militant Islamists believe that their mission is to ?martyr? themselves for the sake of jihad against infidels (not necessarily only Westerners, but also those who are non-believers in the ?true? Islam), then little could be more rewarding than enduring as much pain and torture for the sake of God. The more torture one undergoes, the more meaningful their ?martyrdom.? There may not be a large influx of terrorists or of terrorist attacks because of this recent video, but it certainly could encourage terrorists to continue their jihad.
