Post date: Feb 02, 2013 1:50:34 PM
Egyptians condemn evidence of police brutality during overnight protests as a video shows riot police beating a stripped demonstrator.
CAIRO, EGYPT (FEBRUARY 2, 2013) (REUTERS) - Egyptians condemned the actions of security forces after a video revealed helmeted riot police dragging a demonstrator stripped naked across the ground and beating him with truncheons.
The middle-aged man identified as Hamada Saber, was in a police hospital on Saturday (February 2), the morning after he was shown on television naked, covered in soot and thrashed by half a dozen policemen who had pulled him to an armoured vehicle near the presidential palace.President Mohamed Mursi's office promised an investigation of the incident, which followed the deadliest wave of bloodshed of his seven-month rule. His opponents say it proves that he has chosen to order a brutal crackdown like that carried out by Hosni Mubarak against the uprising that toppled him in 2011.
Cairo residents said the police action violated the demonstrator's human rights, regardless of whether he was taking part in a violent protest.
"Of course, this is against human rights, nobody across the world agrees on what happened yesterday, there is no justification at all to do that, whatever the circumstances or pressures," said Egyptian citizen, Ahmed Salah.
"Because this against humanity, nobody accepts it, the officer who committed this act may one day have any one of his relatives exposed to the same assault. We are all condemning what happened even if that person was a thief or a thug," added Salah.
Ahmed Khaled, another Cairo resident, echoed similar sentiments.
"According to a human rights perspective, there is no reason at all to justify the attack on any human being in this way; they would detain him directly instead of beating him," said Khaled.
Another protester was shot dead on Friday and more than 100 were injured, many seriously, after running battles between police and demonstrators who attacked the palace with petrol bombs.
But none of the bloodshed - which the authorities have blamed on the need for police to control violent crowds - has quite resonated like the images of police abusing a man at their feet - clearly helpless, prone and no possible threat.
"Of course I am against what happened and I am against any assault to any Egyptian citizen whoever he is; a thug, a thief, worker, doctor, engineer or any other person," local resident Samir Mansour told Reuters.
That unrest followed eight days of violence that saw dozens of protesters shot dead in the Suez Canal city of Port Said and Mursi respond by declaring a curfew and state of emergency there and in two other cities.
"Mursi has been stripped bare and has lost his legitimacy. Done," tweeted Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 youth movement that helped launch the anti-Mubarak protests.
"Stripping naked and dragging an Egyptian is a crime that shows the excessive violence of the security forces and the continuation of its repressive practices - a crime for which the president and his interior minister are responsible," liberal politician Amr Hamzawysaid on Twitter.
The incident was an unmistakable reminder of the beating of a woman by riot police onTahrir Square in December 2011. Images of her being dragged and stomped on - her black abaya cloak torn open to reveal her naked torso and blue bra - became a rallying symbol for the revolution and undermined the interim military rulers who held power between Mubarak's fall and Mursi's rise.