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The Court of Cassation yesterday repealed the Giza Criminal Court ruling against actress Habiba which had sentenced her to 10 years in prison after having been accused of murdering her husband. The Court of Cassation ordered that Habiba's documents be returned to the Cairo Court of Appeals to designate a criminal court for Habiba's retrial.
This ruling follows the Prosecutor General's decision to refer criminal investigations police officer in general security Yasser al-Akkad who was accused by general prosecution of having tortured actress Habiba to forcibly obtain a false confession and forging official documents when he was head of Al-Haram police station investigations department.
The mentioned decision came after the South Giza Prosecution interrogated the mentioned officer concerning the incident of torturing citizen Habiba Mohamed Said forcing her to confess to the murder of her husband Atallah Gaafar Atallah, a national of Qatar, resulting in sentencing her to 10 years in prison. Habiba already served five of the 10 years until the real murderers confessed to having committed the crime, which was confirmed by investigations and the forensic report which stated that the crime took place according to the confessions of the real perpetrators rather than Habiba's confessions. Habiba had made these confessions after the head of investigations beat her and threatened her with taking off her clothes. His subordinates beat her with sticks on various parts of her body causing serious injuries documented in the forensic report.
Within this context, HRAAP submitted a report to Prosecutor General Maher Abdel-Wahed on 4 December 2003 asking that an investigation be conducted concerning the incident of torturing young actress Habiba forcing her to confess to murdering her husband, in addition to torturing four other citizens from Toukh forcing them to confess another murder. The report was registered under number 12207 on 11 December 2003 at the Cairo Court of Appeals to take necessary measures. The report was also registered under number 767 of 2003 Prosecutor General Appeals and sent to South Giza Prosecution under issuance number 6197 dated 13 December 2003 where it received an order to consider and take necessary measures.
The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners
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