الأحد، فبراير ٢٧، ٢٠١١

Testimony on the arrest of Amr Abdallah Al-Bihary Early Saturday morning of the 26th of February 2011


A testimony from Dr. Laila Soueif, an eye-witness of the arrest and mistreatment of Amr Abdallah, the protester who is currently facing military trial after the army made up an arms possession case against him.. (Read it in Arabic too)

Eyewitness account on the arrest of Amr Abdallah Al-Bihary
Early Saturday morning of the 26th of February 2011

Dr. Laila Soueif
Professor at Cairo University, Faculty of Sciences
ID Number: 25605018800105

At around 2am Saturday the 26th of February 2011 in Al-Qasr Al-Ainy St. the army and military police forcefully dispersed the sit in that was staged in front of the People’s Assembly that I was participating in. Soon after, as we were all leaving, some members of the army kidnapped Amr Abdallah Al-Bihary (32 years old- from Kafr Al-Zayat) and started viciously beating him, causing him facial injuries, for no obvious reason. When we announced that we would not be leaving without him, a high ranking military officer started talking to us and ordered other officers to release Amr Abdallah Al-Bihary- he had bad injuries on his face. As we were walking through Al-Qasr Al-Ainy st. Mr. Amr Abdallah Al-Bihary, Dr. Shady Al-Ghazaly Harb, Dr. Takadom Al-Khateeb (Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts of Mansoura University and a member of the 9th of March Movement for Universities' independence), my Daughter Mona Ahmed Seif Abdel Fatah, my son Alaa Ahmed Seif Abdel Fatah, my daughter in-law Manal Bahy El-Din Hassan, Mr. Ahmed Abdallah (Mr. Amr’s relative) and myself were stopped by two young men in a car (I unfortunately don’t know their names) who offered to help us. We asked them to take Mr. Amr Abdallah as he was injured and his cousin, Then Dr. Shady and Dr. Takadom left us to take Dr. Shady's car. As they left, my family and I started walking through Garden City. A few minutes later Dr. Takadom Al-Khateeb called me to tell me that the army had stopped them again. I went back to Al-Qasr Al-Ainy st. to find Mr. Amr Abdallah Al-Bihary, Dr. Shady Al-Ghazaly Harb, Dr. Takadom Al-Khateeb, and the two men who stopped to help us earlier all detained by a large number of military officers.

At around 4:30am Dr. Takadom Al-Khateeb called to inform me that he and Dr. Shady Al-Ghazaly Harb had been released but the other four were still detained. He also informed me that the officer who detained them claimed he found a weapon (Sound Gun) on Mr. Amr Abdallah.

At 2pm Saturday the 26th of February 2011, after reading the 23rd statement of the Supreme Military Council (which stated that all those detained Saturday morning would be released) I called Mr. Ahmed Abdallah to make sure he was alright. He informed me that he himself had been released and that the other two men who had stopped to help us were also released earlier but that he did not know anything of Mr. Amr Abdallah. I would like to state here the Mr. Amr Abdallah was not carrying anything that could possibly hold a gun. Furthermore, he had been detained by the military earlier that day and then released to leave with us: if he was indeed bearing a gun they would have never let him leave with us. The likelihood is that they wanted an excuse for the injures they caused him as my daughter Mona, Dr. Shady, and Dr. Takadom took pictures of him that showed the extent of these injuries after the military initially released him, and it was obvious that we intended to report the incident. Further to this, everyone I spoke to who had also been detained that morning said that they had been viciously beaten and some said that they had even been tortured by the use of electric shocks.

Dr. Laila Soueif
Professor at Cairo University, Faculty of Sciences
26 February 2011

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BOMBOVA يقول...

Soueif and Seif, i for one, albeit on the "internet" have seen the photo and read words of this injustice and inhumane treatment. "this man is
paying with pain, for Egypt's reform" Writing this, you have honoured him " i honour him " May his suffering heal Egypt of it's social hardship.