Egypt orders probe into new torture video (tortured woman confesses to murder)

[Barrett808]

CAIRO (AFP) - The Egyptian interior minister has ordered security services to discover the identity of a female suspect apparently being tortured by police in a video publicized by the press, a security source said Monday.

A still frame from a video published on the front pages of the independent dailes al-Masri al-Youm and al-Fajr Sunday reportedly showed a screaming woman, tied to a bar hung between two chairs, being interrogated.

The short video, available on the Internet and showing a young woman painfully confessing to murder, was described as a police interrogation.

The order for an investigation comes hard on the heels of the detention of two policemen on December 27 on charges of sexually assaulting a minibus driver after another graphic video was posted on the web.

Human rights activists both inside and outside Egypt have repeatedly alleged that police use torture and abuse as a routine tool during questioning -- a charge the interior ministry denies.

In recent months, however, grainy amateur videos often taken using mobile phones have appeared purporting to show examples of police brutality.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070108/wl_mideast_afp/iraqtorture

[MannyGoldstein]

1. I Hope That We're Really Proud

I believe that Egypt was the first country that Bill Clinton turned to when he bagan our practice of outsourcing torture.

(No I'm not defending Bush. Yes he's much worse than Clinton. I just want Democrats to be Democrats - why is that wrong?)

[ReadTomPaine]

2. The minister is likely looking for the person who leaked the footage, not the torturer. n/t

[ellenfl]

3. if so, he's taking a page from dimson's playbook. eom