EXTERNAL

AI Index:MDE 12/14/90

Distrib:PG/SC

Date:21 December 1990

Amnesty International has received reports that Dr Ahmed Isma'il Mahmoud Salama was subjected to torture over a period of two weeks following his arrest in November 1990. Dr Ahmed Salama, who is a specialist in internal medicine at Umm al-Misriyyin Hospital, was arrested on 17 November by the State Security Intelligence Police (SSIP) and held in their custody in Giza until 1 December 1990. While in SSIP custody he is reported to have been subjected to electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body, suspension and extensive beatings with a stick. This is alleged to have continued for some 12 hours a day and he is said to have sustained a fracture to the right jaw as a result of blows to his face.

The reasons for Dr Salama's detention are not at present clear. His arrest may have been part of a wave of arrests which took place throughout Egypt in October and November 1990 following the assassination of the Speaker of the People's Assembly and five of his guards.

Under emergency legislation which has been continually in force since 1981 the security forces have broad powers of arrest; during times of political tension mass detentions have occurred and nearly all detainees have later been released without charge. The torture of political detainees held under emergency legislation has been of long-standing concern to Amnesty International. Detainees are held in incommunicado detention without access to lawyers, relations or doctors. In a report issued on 17 October 1990 Amnesty International urged the Egyptian Government to investigate all allegations of torture and to introduce measures to safeguard detainees from torture and ill-treatment.

On 1 November 1990 Dr Salama was transferred from SSIP custody to Abu Za'abal Prison. He was visited there by a delegation from the Egyptian Medical Association which reported that he bore physical signs of abuse.

Amnesty International is calling on the Egyptian authorities to investigate Dr Salama's torture and to bring to justice those responsible. It continues to urge the authorities to respect its obligations under national and international law and to bring an end to the use of torture and ill-treatment.