Alexandria District Attorney Yasser Refaai denied that the body of Mohamed al-Sayed Bilal, a young Salafist who was allegedly tortured to death by police, was exhumed for examination.
Police were investigating Bilal against the backdrop of an Alexandria church blast on New Year’s Eve.
“The prosecution has already ordered an autopsy and concluded the forensic examination,” Refaai said. “And his family received the body and buried it.”
“Prosecutors examined Bilal’s body right after they were notified of his death,” he added. “They found no wounds to the body.”
The prosecutors took testimony of Bilal’s brother, who claimed a man told him his brother was summoned to state security services for investigation before allegedly torturing him to death.
They also took testimony from Zaklih Medical Center’s director, who said two men brought Bilal to the center and said they found him lying unconscious in the street.
The prosecution will summon the two men for investigation and request a final forensic report to determine the cause of death. It will also summon Bilal’s family members to testify for a second time.
In related news, bloggers on the social networking site Facebook expressed solidarity with Bilal’s family. They rejected using the church attack investigations as a pretext for random arrests and fabricated charges, and demanded that Bilal’s murderers be brought to justice.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Saeed Abdel Azim, a leader of Alexandria’s Salafist movement, said he is closely following Bilal’s case and awaiting the outcome of the investigation. “Once the investigation is complete, we will announce our reaction,” he said, assuring that any response by the movement would be in accordance with law.
“Torture victims have a right to persecute the criminals,” he said. “And we, Salafists, denounce such crimes.”
“We condemn the bombing of the church, which violated the teachings of Islam,” he said. “Such acts only serve those who work against the unity of our country.”
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
