Misr Digital: Egypt to Probe Abuse Shown in Video

The blog Misr Digital has documented many cases of abuse and torture in Egypt, and now Egyptian authorities have decided to investigate a video clip from Misr Digital that allegedly shows a police officer forcing a woman to strip and slapping her in the face.

Misr Digital is the Arabic-language Web site of blogger and anti-torture activist Wael Abbas. Misr Digital has featured many video and audio clips and photos of instances of torture and abuse supposedly carried out by police and other authorities in Egypt.

Wael Abbas had put some of the videos from Misr Digital up on his YouTube site, but YouTube disabled his channel due to complaints from some users. The channel has since been restored by YouTube.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have long said that abuse by authorities is common in Egypt.

Wael Abbas last month received the Knight International Journalism Award from the International Center for Journalists, the first blogger to receive the award. The ICFJ has said of Misr Digital and Wael Abbas, "His reports of police violence against political protesters have been picked up by mainstream media, and resulted in the arrests of several policemen."