Arrest and detention

Young Atef Ibrahim was arrested on 29 September 2009 following a fight between his cousin and another individual, which resulted in the death of the latter. State Security forces arrested him and his cousin and the Prosecutor General ordered that they be remanded in custody pending investigation. They were held in Al-Omaraniya police station for more than four months even in despite the fact that it is illegal for police officers to hold prisoners while pending investigation, although prisoners can be held in public prisons during this period under Egyptian law.

On 31 December 2009, Mohamed Atef Ibrahim was tortured by a police officer who brutally beat him in front of the other prisoners and left him lying on the ground in agony. Mohamed's mother was then able to visit him on 1 January 2010, when she took him to the local hospital where he later died on 6 January 2010, after a week of pain and suffering. The doctor's report showed that he died due to internal bleed as a result of a severe beating.

Alkarama calls upon the Egyptian authorities to take legal action against those responsible for Mohamed Atef Ibrahim's death, rather than issuing a statement that the death was in fact a suicide - as is the frequently the case with murders inside detention centers.