New torture video sparks storm in Egypt

Published January 8th, 2007 - 03:05 GMT

The Egyptian interior minister has ordered security agencies to discover the identity of a female suspect apparently being tortured by police in a video appeared in the internet, a security source said Monday.

 

A still frame from the video was also published on the front pages of the independent dailes al-Masri al-Youm and al-Fajr Sunday.

 

In the 32 second video one can see a screaming woman, tied to a bar hung between two chairs, being interrogated. The young woman painfully confessing to murder. She tells the interrogater, named "Basha": "Please show mercy, my hands are torn."

 

International organizations such as Human Rights Watch, have condemned torture in Egypt. "Torture in Egypt is a widespread and persistent phenomenon. Security forces and the police routinely torture or ill-treat detainees, particularly during interrogation," a report by HRW has indicated.

 

Below is the video as was seen on YouTube.com: