Emad Mohamed Ali, known in the media as Emad al-Kabir, a microbus driver who was filmed while being sodomized by a police captain in Bulaq al-Dakrour police station, has been arrested for engaging in a gun fight with Ali al-Zuheiry, another microbus driver.
Investigations by North Giza prosecution services found that al-Kabir had been fighting with al-Zuheiry over who had priority to pick up passengers at a microbus stop in Nahya, Giza. When al-Kabir and 21 of his friends severely beat al-Zuhairy, he in turn summoned his own friends, and the situation reportedly developed into a melee of shooting and fighting with clubs. Eight stores on Nahya street were smashed in, and Giza security forces arrested al-Kabir.
Police captain Islam Nabih's sodomy of al-Kebir was one of the most notorious cases of police abuse in Egypt's recent history. The case first came to light when a video of the torture appeared on a blog. The video, which graphically depicted Nabih beating and sodomizing el-Kebir, spread like wildfire throughout blogs and social media networks, and was later picked up by mainstream news outlets.
Human rights groups in Egypt and around the world decried the brutality. Al-Kebir was sentenced to three months in prison for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
Al-Kabir pressed charges against the two policemen and won the case in 2007. Nabih and another officer were sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor, in an unprecedented case that received much hype in international media.
However Nabih and the other officer were released after serving only three quarters of their sentence and were quickly returned to the police force, even maintaining their previous ranks and titles, in Assiut Governorate.
The decision was met with furious reactions from human rights groups, but a lawsuit filed by a group of lawyers in the administrative court calling for the decision to be reversed and the two police officers dismissed was rejected at the beginning of this year.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
