I’m short of time and won’t be blogging regularly for a while, so keep an eye instead on my del.icio.us bookmarks…

But before I leave you, I had to post about this…

The two sadist pigs from Boulaq el-Dakrour Police Station, Captain Islam Nabih and Corporal Reda Fathi, were sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for sodomizing driver Emad Kabeer and filming the abuse to further the humiliation.

There is a sense of joy among Emad, his lawyer and for sure the blogosphere which broke the scandal as well as the independent press that carried on with the investigation…

[Emad celebrating the court verdict. Photo by Lali Sandiumenge.]

Two things we need to remember here, though:

1- We have to thank our brave anti-torture blogger MAK who first uploaded the torture video to the cyberspace, unleashing together with Wael Abbas and others, what was to snowball later into El-Adly Videogate…. Mohamed and Wael, I take my hat off to you shabab…

[Mak and Wael Abbas, Downtown Cairo. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]

2-Our “War on Torture” is by no means over. These three-year prison sentences may be the “harshest” verdict produced by Videogate-related trial, but make no mistake, Islam and Reda, the two sadist animals, will receive a five-star treatment in jail like other police officers and influential figures receive when they get locked up. And that’s if they serve the whole sentence. The regime cronies for sure will also use the trial to claim they are “serious” in their commitment to “human rights.” But more importantly, HOW MANY OTHER ISLAM NABIHS ARE THERE in Mubarak’s Interior Ministry? AND HOW MANY EMAD KABEERS RIGHT NOW INSIDE THE POLICE STATIONS OF OUR COUNTRY’S 26 PROVINCES? Was Boulaq’s torture fiesta an “individual behavior” as the government mouthpieces claim whenever torture stories emerge? Of course not. Torture in Mubarak’s Egypt is a systematic practice by his security agencies, whether it’s State Security or the ordinary police. Has the Boulaq el-Dakrour Police Station’s “refrigerator” been closed down, or is still operating? [In case you don't know, the Tallaga "Refrigerator" is what the police calls the room, which exists in virtually ever single police station, where interrogation of suspects occurs under torture. The walls of the room would be decorated by tools of torture, usually locally produced or personally improvised by Mubarak's sick officers and corporals. Emad was sexually abused and whipped in Boulaq's "refrigerator."] The abuse and humiliation induced by the Egyptian police on the citizens are daily, and will continue as long as the current regime continues. The writings of retired Brigadier General Mahmoud Qutri, a self-described liberal, provides a great insight into how those monsters are created and shaped from the time they enroll in the police academy, till they join the force.

[Police Brigadier General (ret.) Mahmoud Qutri, holding a copy of his censored book, Diary of an Officer in the City of Wolves, in his Damanhour office. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]

Putting away an officer or two behind bars means nothing, and don’t get fooled by those who tell you that other officers will take that as a warning not to torture. The only “warning” those officers will receive is to actually be more careful next time and refrain from filming the abuse. Even little kids in Egypt, who also fell on occasions victims to to Mubarak’s police monstrosity, understand well what it means to be “mabaheth” (investigations police).

Does that mean we stay at home and wait for change of regime to happen to see torture abolished? Hell No! We have to continue our anti-torture campaign in even more aggressive way… and the tactics are the same: “Naming and Shaming”… If we see abuse, we’ll photograph it. If we see a torturer, we’ll scandalize him among the public and the world.. We will continue to gather and document evidence about torturers, and collect the testimonies from victims and witnesses……. BUT we will be doing that, without forgetting the bigger picture… which is as long as the current regime (and that includes any “smooth transition” expected to Jimmi or any of the other gangsters) exists, torturers will be enjoying a safe haven–one, whose scientists of pain have scored international reputation worthy of their brutality among their filthy colleagues in other security services around the world, turning Egypt into a part of the US-run global gulag.

I judge the success of the anti-torture campaign (or its failure) by observing generally how many people join the activist community, politicized by what they saw and read… and from there they develop a much sharper vision of the roots of the problem and how is this interrelated to other social, political and economic problems we have in our country, which I’m blaming in full those ruling jackboots for such a catastrophic era in the history of modern Egypt.

To make torture disappear… Mubarak’s regime has to be overthrown… And I see no other alternative but a general strike… If we stop the machine, it’s Game Over… Mahalla, Kafr el-Dawwar, Helwan, Suez, Mansoura are the way forward… If anti-torture activists want to see this practice disappears, then they may want to start paying a bit more attention to and coordinate with the social force which, as we’ve seen repeatedly, when moves en masse, is unstoppable, to overthrow this system run by the dictator Mubarak…