The Cairo-based Egyptian Organization of Human Rights has issued a new report drawing a grim picture of torture in Egyptian security facilities.
The report, made public on Saturday, numbers 42 incidents of torture by security forces between April 2003 and April 2004. In 16 cases, the detainees died, and the organization suspects the deaths were a result of torture and maltreatment.
Torture in Egypt has become widespread in recent years, the report claims, citing statistics from the past eleven years that show the phenomenon in the country has worsened, involving many districts and abuse of people in all walks of society.
Between 1993 and 2004 there were 412 cases of torture recorded, the report said; of them 120 cases ended in death, allegedly as a result of torture.
The organization criticizes the light sentences given to perpetrators of torture in Egyptian courts, a result of what it calls the legal shortcomings in the face of the phenomenon.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights was founded in 1985 as a non-governmental organization. It declaredly acts against governmental and non-governmental human rights violations.
Amnesty International has also reported on torture in Egyptian State Security Intelligence branches, police stations, and prisons. The organization found reports of torture in these facilities, involving electric shocks, beatings, suspension by the wrists or ankles, burning with cigarettes, and various forms of psychological torture, including death threats and threats of rape or sexual abuse of the detainees or their female relatives.