CAIRO: Activists claim a recent streak of kidnapping and torture is reminiscent of practices by the disbanded State Security apparatus under Mubarak’s regime.
As rights organizations prepare reports that document cases of torture against Tahrir protesters who were arrested during clashes with police in November, rights activists recount stories of kidnapping and torture.
Many activists in Cairo and Alexandria claim they were kidnapped or briefly detained from the Tahrir and Semouha sit-ins.
Over 300 detainees were arrested by police forces from Mohamed Mahmoud Street and the surrounding area and were allegedly severely beaten and tortured, according to Maha Youssef, lawyer at Al-Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims.
They were all interrogated by Qasr El-Nil and Abdeen prosecution and released later.
"All detainees were beaten and tortured," Youssef told Daily News Egypt.
"They were tortured during their arrest only, no one touched them when they were detained in prison, and they were interrogated by the prosecution as victims of torture," Youssef said.
She confirmed that the torture cases of these detainees in addition to cases of activists who were briefly detained and beaten are all part of a bigger complaint filed against the Ministry of Interior, which includes killing and injuring protesters and the use of excessive violence against them.
"The forensic department examined all detainees who were tortured and interrogated as victims; we are still awaiting the results to be attached to the case documents," Youssef explained.
The number of protesters that have gone missing in the clashes is yet to be investigated by rights organizations.
"Families claiming their sons went missing kept coming to the square during the sit-in asking for their sons, they even searched the field hospitals," activist Salma Said told DNE.
The trend of kidnapping and torturing activists started months ago when a member of the April 6 Youth Movement, Salma El-Sawi, claimed she was kidnapped and interrogated by the dissolved state security apparatus.
However, her claims were never confirmed.
Two activists working in the campaign of presidential candidates Mohamed ElBaradei and Hamdeen Sabahi, Mahmoud Shaaban and Islam Hafez, were also allegedly kidnapped and blindfolded and interrogated by unknown individuals.
Most recently three members of the No to Military Trials Campaign, Maged El-Samny, Nadim Amin, and Zeyad Salem, were allegedly kidnapped and tortured during Tahrir events in November.
"Activists, especially those belonging to the No to Military Trials Campaign, are subject to brief kidnappings by unknown people, badly beaten and tortured, then released in deserted areas," member of the campaign Shahira Abouellail told DNE.
El-Samny said he was detained for 11 hours during the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes and was beaten by police forces without interrogation.
El-Samny said in a testimony published online that he was beaten by security forces then transported in a truck with others to Tora Central Police Camp for hours and then taken back to Mohamed Mahmoud Street.
"The worst thing is they beat me before they accused me of anything. No interrogation, no accusations, nothing. The only question was ‘Where are you from?’," El-Samny recounted.
He got five stitches in his forehead, three beside his eye, and bruises all over his body, he said.
Amin was kidnapped later that month during clashes that erupted between street vendors and protesters on November 29, days after police violence ended.
He took a taxi near Tahrir Square to Giza, where he noticed a black car following him. He left the taxi near Cairo University and sent a message to lawyers and his friends asking for help, according to his testimony published by the anti-military trials campaign.
Shortly after, he was taken inside a dark blue Jeep where he was beaten continuously for two hours, handcuffed and blindfolded.
"I was beaten and accused of not being Egyptian, I was asked who I was, why I was standing where they took me and who I was working for, but I stayed silent the whole time," Amin said in his testimony.
Abouellail said that members of the campaign, known for being vocal critics of the ruling military council, believe they are followed by various intelligence bodies.
"All our hotlines are monitored, I hear beeps while using the phone all the time," Abouellail said, adding that a police officer, who is a close friend of hers, said that these sounds mean the phone is tapped by several people, not just one.
Salem, a member of the campaign in Alexandria, was beaten and sexually assaulted in a microbus, confirming in a testimony published later by the campaign that his kidnappers were deliberately targeting him.
"They knew my name. They only stole the phone that received calls for the campaign’s hotline and nothing else, they left my BlackBerry and my iPod," Salem said.
"I also received many strange calls before the kidnapping where the caller knew my name and that I was working on this line. I had received threatening phone calls months ago but I ignored them," he added.
Activists say that what makes these kidnapping attempts more confusing after the revolution is that no one knows for sure which security apparatus, if any, is using these tactics to intimidate activists.
The Ministry of Interior was not available to comment on these claims.
Abouellail said that rights organizations and groups are currently preparing cases of the martyrs and the injured during the November events, which leaves almost no time to investigate the issue of activists’ safety.
"We are more concerned with documenting what happened on those days than thinking of what we should do," she said.
"This is what tyranny looks like, tyranny struggling to survive a revolution," she said.
