General Prosecution office (Photo: Al-Ahram)
The claims were made in a video that went viral online showing a number of detainees inside what appears to be a jail cell displaying injuries that they claimed were the result of torture by police.
The unverified footage also showed a number of people hanging by their arms allegedly inside the police station, with the person filming the video claiming that they had been hanging for hours.
“Four detainees, incited by others from inside and outside the country… injured themselves using a coin [with the aim of] destabilising [the country], inciting strife, and spreading rumours,” the prosecution said in a statement on Tuesday evening, citing police investigations.
The detainees also alleged that they had been denied food and that one of the inmates had been tortured to death, the prosecution said in a statement, adding that they filmed the video using a smuggled phone.
The prosecution said that it questioned a detainee, in the presence of his lawyer, and that he confessed to smuggling the phone into the cell with the help of his family in order to stay in touch with them.
Other detainees, however, stole the phone and conspired to subject themselves to self-harm in order frame the authorities, the detainee told the prosecution.
The prosecution ordered the detention of the man who smuggled the cell phone pending further investigation into the case.
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