CAIRO: The Journalists’ Syndicate filed a complaint with the acting Attorney General Aly Omran over alleged acts of torture inflicted upon a journalist in a police station, Al Ahram reported Thursday.
“Photojournalist Omar Abdel Maqsoud was beaten into a coma before he was denied heart medicine at Mit Ghamr police station,” according to the complaint filed by commissioner of the syndicate’s Freedoms Committee Khaled el-Balshy.
Abdel Maqsoud, along with his two brothers, Ibrahim and Anas, were detained in the same police station but were denied family visits and were beaten in their cell by nine policemen, Balshy said, adding that the complaint is based on a grievance submitted to the syndicate by the photojournalist’s wife.
Balshy called Omran to open investigations into the “blatant violations on the freedom of expression guaranteed by the constitution.”
“Abdel Maksoud, who worked for Masr al-Arabia news website, was first arrested on February 19, 2014, while covering a baby shower for a woman who had been taken into custody and forced to give birth in a hospital in handcuffs,” according to a report issued by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ.)
The woman along with her baby were celebrated in Cairo by several activists before the police stormed the celebration, and beat and arrested the participants, including Abdel Maqsoud, according to Masr al-Arabia.
He was released on bail before he was rearrested in April 2014 for alleged complicity in setting fire to cars belonging to Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s presidential campaign, CPJ said.