60-year-old Fouad Mohamed Youssif slams his fist to the table in anger, yelling loudly that the Egyptian government is “a dirty government.” Youssif has much reason to hate the government after a number of police officers barged into his flat in Sayeda Zeinab last summer – an area of Cairo near downtown – and beat him up as they were looking for his son.

Bikya Masr sat down with Youssif and heard yet another example of police brutality and violence perpetrated against average citizens. His story, similar to an earlier tale revealed by Haytham Fawzy al-Rabie is what rights organizations in the country argue is part of systemic abuses by police.

On May 9 last year, a police chief and ten subordinates broke into Youssif’s apartment early in the morning, sometime before dawn, the elderly man says. When he went to discern the meaning for the disturbance, the officer pushed him, resulting in his 3-year-old daughter being injured.
The police had arrived in search of his eldest son, but when he was not to be found – according to Youssef the son was staying at another daughter’s home – the police began to ransack the apartment, throwing chairs, lamps and dressers astray.

“They were looking for my son, who they accused of being a drug dealer, but I assure you he is a decent, good engineer at an oil company,” Youssif argues.

Youssif believes the officers did not come looking for his son, instead they were there to dish out attribution after he had had an argument with a neighbor, who was a police officer.

“They came to trash the place. They did not come to look for my son,” he says.

The police chief took his son’s mobile phone and ID card. When Youssif attempted to retake the ID, one officer yelled at him to “shut-up, I don’t want to hear a sound.” Being dissatisfied that the son was not present that morning, the police proceeded to rummage through his wife’s closet.

“They made insulting comments about her under-garments,” he tells.

According to Youssif, the officers destroyed much of the family’s belongings. After not giving a reason for being at the apartment, the police left. Youssif then took his little girl to the hospital where she received treatment for minor injuries.

After the incident, the 60-year-old retiree went to the general prosecutor to file a claim against the officers. Instead, on June 15, his son was arrested and charged as a drug dealer.

According to Youssif’s lawyer, Mustafa Galal, the son was found innocent on the charges, as “he was not searched when arrested and the police could not find anything” substantial. Yet, the young engineer was not freed from jail.

Now, almost 8 months since his arrest, Youssif’s son remains behind bars on other charges.

“This is the first time he has ever faced a problem like this. They framed him,” the lawyer argues, saying that the personal vendetta against his client for having an argument with his neighbor is why the police continue to intimidate Youssif and his family.

What frustrates Youssif, and the dozens of other documented cases of police brutality in the country, is the fact that even after charges are filed against police officers, they are protected by the state against criminal action.

“I don’t know what is expected of me. I go to the prosecutor and my son ends up in jail. How can this be except that the government is a bunch of dirty people,” Youssif believes.

Local and international rights groups have long criticized the Egyptian government over their seeming inability to take action against police for their abuses of citizens. A recent report published by the National Council for Human Rights revealed hundreds of cases where police use violence and intimidation. The report also said that at least 18 people were killed inside police stations in 2008.

“Action needs to be taken,” says Fardous Ahmed Ali, a lawyer with the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, “but there is a lot of work and until the government steps in and punishes officers for their actions it is a long road for Egypt.”