Egyptian parliament’s human rights committee begins ‘surprise visits’ to police stations

A delegation of MPs affiliated with the Egyptian parliament’s human rights committee began on Tuesday paying field visits to a number of police stations and prisons in Cairo and Giza. Alaa Abed, the head of the committee, told reporters that the visits reflect the committee’s role in supervising the performance of police officers and ensuring that human rights are fully observed in police stations and prison cells. “The visits will in particular focus on police stations and prison cells where some torture cases were reported”, said Abed. Azer told Ahram Online that the parliamentary delegation began on Tuesday by visiting El-Warraq district police station in Greater Cairo.Azer revealed that the committee’s visits will also include orphanages.”We got several reports from the media and independent lawyers that there was a lot of abuses in some orphanages and child care centres and we want to review conditions there”, said Azer.