(Photo from Freedom for the Brave)
During her visit to her detained sister Esraa, who has been missing for three weeks until she appeared in state security detention, Duaa El-Taweel said: “If my sister stays for one more month without physiotherapy she will paralysed again.”
Esraa El-Taweel was forcibly disappeared for three weeks before appearing in Al-Qanater Women’s Prison after investigations at the state security court without clear charges.
Duaa visited her sister on Tuesday and said that Esraa was taking physiotherapy sessions for a year and half to recover from an injury she received whilst covering the third anniversary of 25 January Revolution.
She added: “The cell where she is detained is very crowded and it makes her suffer breathing problems as has up to 38 prisoners, all on criminal charges.”
Moreover, she mentioned Esraa is celebrating her 23rd birthday on 28 June, and is calling on all her friends to pray for her and send their gifts as money donations.
“So far there are no charges against her, and we do not know why she is detained,” El-Taweel’s lawyer Ahmed Osman told Daily News Egypt. “The state security personnel kept hiding her detention location even after she reportedly appeared in Al-Qanater prison. However after our persistence, they told us we investigated her and then she is transferred now to the prison but refused to give more details.”
According to Osman, the security forces have also confiscated four laptops from her home and made her sister sign consent that she will attend investigations by the state security court the following day. However, when she went, they only investigated Esraa, without pointing charges against her.
More cases of individuals believed abducted by security forces in a wave of disappearances over the past two weeks are emerging, as reports by activists and family members are published online.
A Ministry of Interior spokesperson previously denied police forcibly takes individuals in this manner, also telling Daily News Egypt that Egypt’s police forces are currently not targeting young people, regardless of their political stances and positions.
