I haven’t had proper time to continue working on the Piggipedia files, but here is a face which popped up while I was reading some articles about torture, and I recalled having more pictures of the same officer on the SS Nasr City DVDs.
SS Lt. Colonel Hani Talaat, also known as “Gaafar,” worked at the dissolved SS, as part of its “Central Investigations Unit.” His name was mentioned in the case of Sayyed Bilal’s death under torture, and reportedly still keeps his job at Homeland Security, the successor of SS.
With 11 years experience as the Head of Electronic Investigation Department at (Mubarak’s dissolved Gestapo) State Security Police, one accumulates enough experience to become a banker and an expert on labor law.
State Security Police informer, caught and kicked out from the protest by the striking doctors on Thursday…
During the protest, the doctor standing next to me, started shouting and pointing to a man who stood on the opposite pavement filming the demonstration using his mobile phone. The doctor and others said this was a State Security Police informer who used to spy on them at the syndicate events before the revolution.
We chased him. The man fled after a brief scuffle, shouting, “I left State Security, I swear, I now work for the Amn el-’Am (General Security).”
After dissolving State Security Police, Mubarak’s gestapo which enjoyed close relations with their counterparts in the US, the government founded قطاع الأمن الوطني which was given an official name in English, Homeland Security. They even adopted a logo similar to their American patrons. How more metaphoric and anecdotal can one get?
A long feature by Ahram Online sheds light on the systematic use of torture against Egyptians by the ousted Mubarak regime. The feature includes an interview with me, veteran activist Aida Seif el-Dawla and others.
Continuous updates and resources on police torture in Egypt could be found on this diigo group…
Sherif el-Qamati is a State Security Police officer who worked at the Bureau of Counter-Communism and Human Rights Organizations, which was in charge of monitoring, arresting and torturing leftists and rights activists.
I first spotted Qamati as early as 2003, when he began showing up for our pro-Palestine and anti-Iraq war protests in downtown Cairo, in the company of the infamous torturer SS Lt. Colonel Waleed el-Dessouqi, both seen below in the picture I took in a pro-intifada protest, 28 September 2003…
Qamati was one the SS officers involved in the crackdown and trial of Revolutionary Socialist activists in 2003-4. He ritualistically attended our protests in downtown Cairo over the following years, monitoring activists with his cold dead eyes which always reminded me of Putin somehow.
During the Cairo Spring, when thousands of Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo in solidarity with reformist judges, Qamati was present in the protests and took part in the crackdown. On 25 May 2006, Qamati, with the help of the police force of Qasr el-Nil Station, kidnapped and sodomized left wing blogger Mohamed el-Sharqawi in custody. He was never held accountable despite repeated calls by local and internaitonal rights watchdogs.
Qamati continued to show up for our protests in 2007, but could hardly be noticed in the following years. Other than demonstrations, I also saw him in January 2007 working out in the FDA Gym at Zamalek’s Yamama Center. As of 2008, Qamati held the rank of Major, according to one of his relatives’ obituary published in Al-Ahram.
So where is this rapist today? Whatever happened to him? Is he part of the National Security Bureau, has he been recycled in some other police department, forced to retire, or what? Qamati must face justice and pay for his crimes.
The 25 Leaks website has published two group photos of State Security Police officers, seen below.
When I looked at the pix above, I noticed that three of those officers are already on the SS Nasr City DVDs, including Amgad Ezz el-Din…
And Ayman el-Banna…
As well as Ayman el-Rashidi…
A banner in Tahrir on Friday, by the Popular Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, denouncing the National Security Bureau, the successor (or to be more correct, the reinvention) of State Security Police…
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