CAIRO: A Saturday video posted on Youm7 showing police officers beating and dragging a half-naked citizen reportedly in Faisal St. in Giza went viral on social media, prompting a police investigation to be launched into the abuse.
A man was seen in the video yelling and screaming while holding the legs of a police officer who is beating him on his face, while another officer was grabbing the man’s legs.
Then the assaulted man appealed to passersby saying“Is this Egypt, people? Is this bravery? Is this the revolution?” The police officer interrupted him “come with me and shut up.”
The man was seen grabbed from his trousers by a police officer who was trying to take him away threatening “I swear to God I will imprison you.”
“Why, what did I do to you? Did I rob you?” the man asked the abusing police officer.
“Move it, Move it,” the police officer said while punching the man in the face and brutally beating him on his arm. Officers then took him away.
The reason why the officers were arresting the man was not clear in the video.
Circulated video of police officers abusing, dragging a man in street
“Such attitudes are completely rejected and the ministry firmly combats them,” said Assistant Interior Minister Abu Bakr Abdel Kareem in TV statements Saturday. “The minister was informed and ordered the assaulting police officers to be identified and the incident referred to investigations,” he added.
On Aug. 12, another viral video showing policemen brutally beating a man at a Cairo metro station was referred to investigations. The Interior Ministry later said that the abused citizen had attacked the forces, claiming that they helped a man who harassed his fiancée to flee.
Video of officers assaulting a man in metro station
Accusations of police brutality have been repeatedly reported in the last few years. The ministry, however, has repeatedly denied torture in Egypt’s prisons was a systematic practice. According to human rights lawyers, most of the lawsuits filed against officers accused in torture cases are hard to prove.
Reforming the interior ministry was one of the main demands of the January 25 Revolution in 2011.