Ali Qassem, the uncle of Khaled Saeed, the young Alexandrian allegedly killed by two police officers last month, claimed that yesterday security threatened Tamer el-Sayed Mohamed, one of the witnesses in the trial. According to Qassem, nine men, along with security forces, attacked Mohamed to try to force him to change his statements.
This comes one day after dozens of demonstrators took to the streets in honor of Saeed. Protesters condemned the extension of the emergency law protecting the accused. Representatives from Kefaya, National Association for Change (NAC), and the Ghad party took part in the protest that reached Saeed’s house and lasted for half an hour without the presence of security.
Youseff Shaaban, a member of Social Studies Center, said, “The protest marks 40 days after Saeed’s death, to deliver a message to the Interior Ministry that the Khaled case and other similar torture cases will not fade away. It expresses Egyptians’ anger toward torture.”
Mohamed Abd el-Aziz, a lawyer with the Nadeem Center for Human Rights, said they were protesting the Ministry of Interior’s methods of persuading witnesses to change their statements while the case is being considered.
Qassem told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Mohamed filed a report to the Alexandria appeals prosecution. “This protest and prior ones express people’s anger and their refusal to extend the emergency law,” he said.
Mohamed is currently being treated for injuries in el-Meeri hospital.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
