Prosecutors in the southern Egyptian governorate of Beni Sueif have ordered a police sergeant to stand trial for torturing a street vendor and extracting from him a false confession that he had stolen an apartment flat.
"Sergeant Khaled Ahmed Medhat will stand trial in a criminal court for detaining and torturing an innocent man," said Hamdi Farouq, the Beni Sueif Chief Prosecutor.
He added that Medhat, 25, would also be accused of forcing Tareq Saad Abdel Hamid, a street vendor, to confess to a crime he did not commit.
"Evidence from a forensics report illustrated that Abdel Hamid was electrocuted and tortured. Subsequent investigations led to Medhat as the man behind it," Farouq was quoted by the evening daily Al-Messa as saying.
The story dates back to early 2009 when Abdel Hamid was arrested by Medhat, who now works in al-Wasta City, as a suspect for stealing the flat of a retired teacher in the city of Beni Sueif. When he denied it, Medhat tortured him until he confessed.
When the real burglar was later caught and admitted the robbery, Abdel Hamid filed a report against the policeman.
Lawyers say torture is endemic in Egypt because suspects are held incommunicado for long periods of time and because police interrogations take place without counsel. However, the police deny these charges.
As many as 34 police officers were convicted of torture in Egypt in 2009, according to official statistics.
