Video of police abuse stokes anger in Egypt

[Bosonic]

Source: AP

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Interior Ministry offered a rare expression of regret Saturday after riot police were caught on camera a day earlier beating a protester who had been stripped of his clothes, and then dragging the naked man along the muddy pavement before bundling him into a police van.

The video of the beating, which took place late Friday only blocks from the presidential palace where protests were raging in the streets, further inflamed popular anger with security forces just as several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched on the palace again on Saturday. The uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011 was fueled in part by anger over police brutality.

In the footage aired live on Egyptian TV, at least seven black-clad riot police used sticks to beat 48-year-old Hamada Saber, who was sprawled out on the ground, shirtless and with his pants down around his ankles.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry voiced its "regret" about the assault, and vowed to investigate. But it also sought to distance itself — and the police in general — from the abuse, saying it "was carried out by individuals that do not represent in any way the doctrine of all policemen who direct their efforts to protecting the security and stability of the nation and sacrifice their lives to protect civilians."

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/egypt-ex-interior-minister-gets-new-jail-sentence

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[Fire Walk With Me]

1. K&R

[formercia]

2. Police are their own worst enemy

Video will fuel the Global Revolution.

[magellan]

3. The got to him; scared/bribed into publicly recanting

Victim of Egyptian police torture says 'officers were helping me'

Hamada Saber, the man who was dragged and beaten by Central Security Forces (CSF) as recorded on a video aired by Al-Hayat satellite TV on Friday night, told prosecutors on Saturday that protesters and not security forces "initiated" the assault against him, according to a report on Ahram Arabic news website.

The one-and-a-half minute video that shocked Egypt and the world showed an unarmed, naked Saber repeatedly kicked by police officers, dragged on the asphalt and beaten with batons as CSF officers battled anti-Morsi protesters in the vicinity of the presidential Palace on Friday night.

Speaking from a police hospital where he is recieving medical treatment, the 50 year old house-painter told investigators that the CSF officers protected him, adding that "the ministry of interior is standing by my side and they are providing me with medical care."

(more)

[xtraxritical]

4. Obviously the pigs threatened the man's family if he did not recant.

[Bosonic]

5. Man stripped and beaten blames Egyptian police

(Reuters) - A man who was beaten and dragged naked across the ground during a demonstration on Friday told the public prosecution that Egyptian riot police were responsible for the incident, reversing an earlier statement in which he blamed demonstrators.

A video of Hamada Saber, 48, being beaten with truncheons by helmeted police has infuriated the opposition, which accuses President Mohamed Mursi of ordering a harsh crackdown on protests two years after the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Mursi's government has announced an investigation into the incident, which came at the end of eight days of violent protests that saw nearly 60 people killed, the deadliest unrest of his seven months in office.

The state news agency MENA said late on Sunday that Saber "had amended his earlier testimony during the investigation, in which he had exonerated the police."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/03/us-egypt-protests-video-idUSBRE91200920130203

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. kick. horrible video. glad it's getting lots of attention.