CAIRO: MP Abbas Abdel Aziz filed an investigation request to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Aboul Gheit regarding the alleged assault of Ahmed Mohamed Al-Takrouri in the American embassy.
Abdel Aziz, who sent a copy of his request to Daily News Egypt, indicated that earlier this month both Al-Takrouri and his mother were “assaulted inside the US Embassy.
Al-Takrouri and his mother had gone to the embassy to inquire about his American wife, who had disappeared with his children. He later accused the security guards at the embassy of preventing him from entering and beating him and his mother.
However, the Egyptian foreign ministry released a statement then, saying the embassy denied physically assaulting Al-Takrouri or his mother. The embassy accused Al-Takrouri of repeatedly threatening and accusing embassy staff of helping his wife and children flee the country.
Criticized for its negligence, the Egyptian government recently started showing interest in the welfare of Egyptians living abroad, with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit reportedly working on a draft law to protect the rights of Egyptian expats.
Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mofid Shehab has been touring foreign countries to assess the conditions of Egyptians overseas.
In July, the tragic murder of Marwa Al-Sherbini in Germany brought the issue to the forefront.
The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) also reiterated calls for President Hosni Mubarak to intervene in the case of 25 Egyptian migrant workers sentenced to death in Libya.
Last December, Ambassador Ahmed Al-Kousieny, deputy foreign minister in charge of Egyptians living abroad, announced that 5,522 Egyptians are prisoners in different parts of the world out of 8.6 million Egyptians living abroad.
Human rights groups have also long called on the government to protect the rights of Egyptians working abroad, especially in the Gulf, where the ‘kafala’ or guarantor system, gives employers the right to confiscate workers’ passports and cancel residencies.
