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Gamal 3abdel 3aziz 3eid, Mohamed el-Sharqawi’s lawyer, said his client resisted an attempt, Thursday 9am, by the prison authorities to transfer him to the forensic medical department, for a second visit. Sharqawi, according to 3eid, told the security officials he was already referred to the forensic medical authorities once, last Sunday, and did not comprehend why he would be referred again.

3eid said his client, whose body is healing from the torture marks, suspected the security wanted to destroy the original report made on Sunday by the forensics, (the report hasn’t been disclosed yet to 3eid) and replace it with a new one that does not bear witness to his clients’ treatment in police custody.

In another development, the US ambassador in Cairo asked the Egyptian government to “explain its side of the story,â€� in remarks made at an American Chamber of Commerce meeting on Wednesday. The government explained “its side of the story,” in an interior ministry statement on Thursday, saying no torture happened, and that Sharqawi and Karim el-Sha3er were arrested for blocking the traffic. The ambassador has yet to say which “side of the story” he buys…

I got out of the cab in front of the ultra-posh Four Seasons Hotel, on the Nile Cornish, by 5pm. The southeast side of the Four Seasons faces a narrow street, where Qasr el-Nil Police Station lies. Operating from an old shabby villa in Garden City built in the pre-republican age, next to the Indonesian embassy, is the police force in charge of security in downtown Cairo, Garden City and Zamalek. And it was in this affluent neighborhood that security agents took rounds in torturing Karim el-Sha3er and Mohamed el-Sharqawi, and sexually abusing the latter on the evening of May 25, 2006. Rights activists had called for a stand by representatives of human rights organizations in front of the police station today.

I arrived, not knowing what to expect. Deep down, I had been hoping the government would be a bit embarrassed about the growing torture scandal, that they might allow a small group of lawyers and professors to protest in front of the police station, and allow reporters like myself to do their job.

My hopes were dashed right away. I saw a group of around three dozen rights activists and lawyers carrying banners, shouting against torture, while at least 200 plainclothes thugs, uniformed and plainclothes security officers including two generals—add to that a phalanx of black-clad riot police conscripts, worked hardly to prevent them from marching on the Qasr el-Nil Police Station. The protestors were violently pushed by the thugs and the officers away. Women doctors from the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence were shoved away. Continue reading Police crackdown on anti-torture demo

Youth for Change activist Mohamed el-Sharqawi sent another letter from Tora prison, recounting the night of his arrest. I’m posting an English translation of his letter (followed by a testimony from a activist reporter in response to today’s interior ministry statement on Sharqawi’s arrest).

A letter from Tora

I couldn’t believe myself, as I sat in the prisoners’ truck, blindfolded, and I was in utter disbelief when I heard one of our accompanying officers say “Karim.. Mohammed, we’ll stop here at the prosecutor’s office.�
The whole time as I was being beaten up and up to the point, at the police station, I had imagined one of two scenarios; either being taken to Lazoughli (State Security police HQ), or getting beaten up and then dumped in a street.

Continue reading Another letter from Sharqawi

The government has partially met one of the hunger-strikers’ demands, while prison authorities continued cracking down, as other detainees joined the strike in a revolving door fashion.
Hours after the detainees started their strike on Sunday, Mohamed el-Sharqawi was referred to the forensic medical department, where he was examined and x-rayed. On Monday, he was provided with basic medical treatment at the prison hospital. Continue reading Updates on the Tora Prison hunger strike

The Prison authorities cracked down on the hunger-striking detainees in Tora, as the strike escalated, with 13 activists in total taking action on its second day.

The strike started on Saturday night/Sunday morning, with six detainees in Mahkoum Tora, refusing to eat. The prisoners, according to activist and legal sources, made it clear to the prison authorities the strike was not directed against them, but against State Security’s brutal treatment of Mohamed el-Sharqawi, demanding his medical examination, an investigation into to the torture incident, and the release of all pro-judges detainees.

“By torturing Sharqawi,� detainee Wael Khalil was quoted by an activist who visited him today, “State Security was sending a message to us ‘This is what awaits you if you decide to take to the streets again after your release.’�

The prison authorities on the first day of the hunger strike, moved the six detainees into solitary confinement cells.

The Mahkoum Tora “is an old prison. These solitary confinement cells do not meet the legal standards specified by human rights treaties,� the detainees’ lawyer Gamal Eid said. “The ventilation is horrible. There is no water, no toilets.� Kamal Khalil, director of the Center for Socialist Studies who’s suffering from respiratory problems, was transferred to the prison hospital yesterday, Eid added.

When protesting the solitary confinement of their colleagues, the prison authorities notified the detainees they were acting on orders from State Security Police, Wael Khalil was reported as saying by the activist who visited him.

Faced with that, seven more detainees joined the hunger strike, instead of two as originally scheduled, on the following day including:

1-Karim el-Sha3er

2-Ashraf Ibrahim

3-Bahaa Saber

4-3emad Sho3eib

5-Ahmad Maher

6-3adel el-Gazzar

7-Nael Abdel Hamid

Since there were only 10 solitary confinement cells in Mahkoum Tora, the first three above-mentioned prisoners were moved to another prison complex, said to be Mazra3et Tora.

According to Eid and an activist source, Sharqawi’s health is still in a critical level, suffering from unbearable chest pains. Eid said however, the authorities finally transferred his detained client to the forensic medical department on Sunday, and provided basic medical treatment at the prison hospital yesterday.

The Hisham Mubarak Law Center has called for a demonstration in front of Qasr el-Nil Police Station, (located in Garden City, downtown Cairo) on Thursday, 5pm, to protest the torture of Mohamed el-Sharqawi and Karim el-Sha3er, the two Youth for Change activists.

The announcement came during a press conference held by the Liberties’ Committee at the Cairo Lawyer’s Syndicate Saturday, where Kefaya leaders and rights lawyers denounced the recent arrest and torture of democracy activists. Moreover, they called on the General Prosecutor to open an investigation into the incident, accusing the State Security Prosecutor’s office of complicity with State Security police, by stalling Sharqawi’s medical examination, in an effort to conceal as much possible of the torture marks on his body.

Muslim Brotherhood activist, Mohamed Abdel Qoddous, also announced the postponement of Tuesday’s protest at the Doctors’ syndicate to Thursday, 7pm.

Mohamed el-Sharqawi has sent a testimony on his arrest and torture, from Tora Prison.

Here’s the English translation of it:

A Letter from Mohamed el-Sharqawi

Kidnapped on 25 May, Currently in Cell 8-1, Mahkoum Tora

How I was kidnapped, beaten and tortured for eight hours?

I went through many moments of fear and horror in my life, but nothing was like those I went through after I left the Press Syndicate on 25 May, 2006, around 6pm. I got into one of my colleagues’ car, to take a ride to the train station, so as to catch the train to Alexandria. I wanted to see my family, after a period by no means short—30 days—behind bars in Tora Prison.

The car stopped at the traffic light of Abdel Khaleq Tharwat St. crossing Talaat Harb St. I wasn’t paying attention, till my colleague screamed, “Who are those?!� I looked around me, and behind the windows there were tens of men in plain clothes trying to open the door. I could only think of one thing in few seconds… State Security personnel had come to kidnap me… I threw whatever I was carrying in the car, and opened the door, only to be met with a violent push into the entrance of the last building on Abdel Khaleq Tharwat St., before it crosses Talaat Harb St.

The fiesta started. They introduced themselves to me by their swift fists, till one of them kicked me to the floor. There was about 20 persons or more. Their punches and kicks came one after the other, and without much planning, which led them to kick one another, because they were all keen to do anything that props them up in front of their bosses. I could not recognize any of the faces, but three. I had seen them before several times in demos. Continue reading Letter from Sharqawi

Statement by Detainees in Tora Prison

Released 27 May 2006

We, the detained in Tora Prison, charged of insulting the president and blocking the traffic, condemn police violence, the kidnap and torture of our colleagues Mohamed el-Sharkawy and Karim el-Sha’er, and condemn the complicity of the Regime Security Prosecution (formerly known as State Security Prosecution).

 

The regime has now two agents of torture: the State Security police and the State Security prosecution, which is the regime’s tool in oppressing and torturing the opposition, which has previously closed the files of all torture cases, and which has blocked the examination of Mohamed el-Sharakawy by forensic medicine in the hope that the signs of torture would resolve.

The regime’s resort to thuggery is evidence of its weakness, and shows how close we are to the day when we rid ourselves from it, the day of Egypt’s liberation. Our continued detention proves the regime’s fear and terror of people’s opposition to its corruption, dictatorship and its systematic destruction of the country.

We announce the beginning of an open escalating hunger strike until our demands are met:

1. Examination of our colleagues by forensic medicine

2. Investigation into the kidnap and torture of our colleagues, bringing State Security officers involved to justice and exposure of the complicity of the prosecution and its crime of closing torture cases and refusing forensic medical examination of the injured.

3. Release of all detainees in the solidarity movement with the judiciary.

 

Together, until torture criminals are brought to justice

List of strikers on the 1st day: Kamal Khalil, Saher Gad, Ahmed Abdel Gawad, Karim Mohamed Reda, Ihab Mohamed Idris, and Sameh Said

List of strikers on the 2nd day: Ahmed Maher and Nael Abdel Hamid

Hunger Strike organizing committee: Gamal Abdel Fattah, Wael Khalil, Ibrahim el-Sahary

I was contacted by one of the detainees’ wife, who called me this afternoon to say the incarcerated activists will start a hunger strike as the clock strikes midnight today, demanding: a) the examination of Mohamed el-Sharqawi and Kareem al-Sha’er by the Forensics Medical Authorities, b) an investigation into the torture and abuse incidents the two Youth for Change activists were subject to last Thursday, c) the release of all those detained for their solidarity with the judges.

The six detainees who will start the strike are:

1-Kamal Khalil

2-Saher Gad

3-Ahmad Abdel Gawad

4-Karim Mohamed Redda

5-Ihab Mohamed Idriss

6-Sameh Mohamed Said

Two other detainees will join the strike in 48 hours: Nael and Ahmad Maher.

Gamal Abdel Aziz Eid, the director of the Arab Human Rights Information Network who is representing the detainees, confirmed to me Sharqawi and Sha’er have not been medically examined up till now. Eid’s organization, together with four other rights watchdogs, have issued a statement today calling on the interior ministry to investigate the recent arrests and abuses, and accusing the State Security Prosecutor’s office of “complicity� in leaving those who conduct torture to go unpunished.   

On another front, I was told the Press Syndicate refused to host the Liberties’ Committee press conference scheduled for Sunday. Instead, the press conference has been moved to the Lawyers’ Syndicate, and will be held, tomorrow Sunday, at 1:30pm.