Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Al-Beltagy accused General Mohamed Al-Sohagy, head of the Prisons Department in the Ministry of Interior, and other high ranking officers of torturing him and filming him, in an attempt to pressure him to drop a police report against President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
Al-Beltagy made the accusations on Tuesday in front of Judge Hassan Farid who is looking into the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in case, which involves more than 700 defendants. The senior Brotherhood leader filed a lawsuit at the beginning of the year accusing Al-Sisi and other state and security officials of killing his daughter Asmaa during the violent and deadly dispersal of the sit-in three years ago. Asmaa was killed along with hundreds of other protesters in the square, when police and army special forces attacked the Islamist supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi.
Al-Beltagy was allowed to speak in front of the judge where he presented allegations saying that Al-Sohagy and other officers dragged him into a room where he was assaulted verbally and ordered to strip to his underwear.
“Those who did this were not non-commissioned officers or police informers… This is related to the report I filed to the prosecution in which I accused Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi of killing my daughter,” Al-Beltagy said.
Judge Farid responded by affirming that he will refer the incident to investigation.
“This is an attempt to break my will and force me to withdraw the report. I refuse this attempt,” Al-Beltagy added.
Al-Sohagy refused to comment on the allegations when asked for clarification by Daily News Egypt.
This is not the first time Al-Sohagy is accused by detainees and their families of ill treatment, especially towards prisoners spending their sentence in the notorious Al-Aqrab prison.
The prison reportedly contains prisoners awaiting trials in political cases and high-profile criminals.
Al-Beltagy was arrested on 29 August 2013 and is currently standing trial in several cases.
Last April, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) released a report on the deteriorating conditions inside the high-security Al-Aqrab prison, highlighting that it is currently the worst prison in Egypt.
Several protests and complaints were made by the families of prisoners held in Al-Aqrab, calling on the Interior Ministry to address prisoners’ conditions. In February, prisoners began hunger strikes in protest of the conditions inside the prison, and demonstrations were held in front the Press Syndicate in solidarity with the prisoners.
