Cairo: Egyptian authorities ruled out on Monday the use of on-body cameras for police to monitor their behaviour after an alleged rise in rights violations.
“Fitting police’s uniforms with cameras is unthinkable in Egypt,” Minister of Communications and Information Technology Khaled Nejm, said.
“We in Egypt largely trust policemen. Egyptians are less violent than Americans. So we do not need such cameras.”
The official was commenting on the White House’s pledge of allocating 75 million dollars for the purchase of 50,000 body cameras for law enforcement personnel in the US after street protests over the killing of a black teenager by a white policeman in Ferguson last year.
In recent months, rights advocates in Egypt have increasingly accused the police of abuses as the government is engaged in a relentless campaign against Islamist hardliners suspected of deadly attacks mainly against security forces.
Earlier this year, local media reported about the death of two Islamists due to alleged torture by police. Security authorities have repeatedly described police violations as isolated acts, saying suspected wrongdoers are investigated and punished if found guilty.
A police officer is due to stand trial next month for fatally shooting a peaceful activist during a protest in central Cairo in January, in a case that raised anger against security agencies.
“The process of using on-body cameras for policemen is difficult and very costly for Egypt at the present time,” said Ahmed Abdul Hafiz, the deputy head of the non-governmental group, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, referring to the country’s economic woes.
“It is possible that the Interior Ministry starts installing surveillance cameras inside police stations to monitor police’s conduct,” he added.
In recent months, critics have accused the government of President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi of condoning purported police abuses and stifling dissenting on the pretext of fighting terrorism.
The critics have also claimed that Al Sissi, who took office, is reviving the police state of long-time president Husni Mubarak who was toppled in a 2011 popular uprising. Al Sissi has repeatedly denied the accusation.
