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Officials turn blind eye to Port Said police abuses - NGOs
Tens of thousands of Port Said residents rallied on Sunday to mourn 29 people who were killed in violence that erupted on Saturday when a court sentenced 21 defendants to death for their involvement in the 2012 deadly stadium riots. January 27, 2013. AbdelHamid Basala/Aswat Masriya
Four non-governmental organizations (NGOs) issued a report on Saturday regarding the police abuses in Egypt's governorate of Port Said.
The fact-finding committee sent to investigate the recent events of violence in Port Said confirmed that the police used live ammunition.
"The newly appointed investigative judge looking into the January violence in Port Said should fully examine police responsibility for unlawful killings during the episode," Said a statement issued by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the Alkarama Foundation, and Human Rights Watch on Saturday.
The director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Hossam Bahgat said, "According to the available evidence, what might have started as an act of self-defence turned into an unlawful use of force, where the police still fired bullets even when nobody was attacking them and they were not under threat."
Meanwhile, the Director of the Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa Branch Sarah Lee Whitson called on President Mohamed Mursi to "openly admit that the police's right to use lethal force is not under control," and that he should order the police to only use force when necessary.
According to the report of the Director of Health Affairs in Port Said Abdul Rahman Farah, the overwhelming majority of the dead protesters were killed with gunshots, mostly injured in the upper half of their bodies, 11 of them suffered injuries in the head and neck.
The forensic doctor concluded that most of the dead were shot from a distance and a higher level, suggesting that the shots were likely by the police, who have settled above the roof of the jail and shot into the crowd after the prison was attacked.
According to the report, the Interior Ministry regulations grant the police overly broad discretion in the use of live gunfire in the vicinity of police stations or during the policing of demonstrations.
"Article 102 of the 1971 Police Law No. 109 provides the police with powers to use firearms that go beyond what international law permits," said the report.
