08-02-2011, 03:53 AM
They broke my legs with bars in prison'
7 02 2011 They broke my legs with bars in prison'
AHMED Douma knows there is nowhere else for him to go if the protests on Tahrir Square fizzle out. He will end up back in the state's torture cells, where he has already suffered so much abuse.
"I have been detained by the police 25 times," said the 21-year-old computer engineer and political activist. "They broke my legs with bars in prison and left me with no medical treatment. They broke my arm four different times."
He was also subjected to electric shocks and left without food, water or toilet facilities for up to five days at a time. "The police asked only one question: Why are you against the Mubarak regime?' After that, they used their torture tools on me," he said.
"Torture is an endemic problem in Egypt," the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report last week, adding that "ending police abuse has been a driving element behind the massive popular demonstrations".
Amnesty International yesterday gave warning that Wael Ghuneim, Google's head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, faced a serious risk of torture after being arrested. The authorities were furious at the demonstrators' use of the internet to organise protests.
"The Egyptian authorities must immediately disclose where Wael Ghuneim is and release him or charge him with a recognisable criminal offence," said Amnesty's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
Businessman Naguib Sawiris has been negotiating the release of Ghoneim, and announced yesterday on his television channel ON TV that the IT executive is to be freed later today.
Until the past week, Egyptians alone were subjected to the brutality. But faced with an uprising, the Government set its henchmen on dozens of foreign media representatives, beating, stabbing and detaining them in what Washington called a coordinated campaign to silence the press.
Two New York Times journalists described being detained and handed to the dreaded Mukhabarat, or secret police, into whose murky cells thousands have disappeared for days, months or even years. "Our discomfort paled in comparison to the dull whacks and the screams by Egyptian people that broke the stillness of the night," they wrote.
Activists doubt that Egypt's dire human-rights record will improve under the new Vice-President, Omar Suleiman, who was in charge during last week's bloody crackdown.
The Times
7 02 2011 They broke my legs with bars in prison'
- James Hider
- From:The Australian
AHMED Douma knows there is nowhere else for him to go if the protests on Tahrir Square fizzle out. He will end up back in the state's torture cells, where he has already suffered so much abuse.
"I have been detained by the police 25 times," said the 21-year-old computer engineer and political activist. "They broke my legs with bars in prison and left me with no medical treatment. They broke my arm four different times."
He was also subjected to electric shocks and left without food, water or toilet facilities for up to five days at a time. "The police asked only one question: Why are you against the Mubarak regime?' After that, they used their torture tools on me," he said.
"Torture is an endemic problem in Egypt," the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report last week, adding that "ending police abuse has been a driving element behind the massive popular demonstrations".
Amnesty International yesterday gave warning that Wael Ghuneim, Google's head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, faced a serious risk of torture after being arrested. The authorities were furious at the demonstrators' use of the internet to organise protests.
"The Egyptian authorities must immediately disclose where Wael Ghuneim is and release him or charge him with a recognisable criminal offence," said Amnesty's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
Businessman Naguib Sawiris has been negotiating the release of Ghoneim, and announced yesterday on his television channel ON TV that the IT executive is to be freed later today.
Until the past week, Egyptians alone were subjected to the brutality. But faced with an uprising, the Government set its henchmen on dozens of foreign media representatives, beating, stabbing and detaining them in what Washington called a coordinated campaign to silence the press.
Two New York Times journalists described being detained and handed to the dreaded Mukhabarat, or secret police, into whose murky cells thousands have disappeared for days, months or even years. "Our discomfort paled in comparison to the dull whacks and the screams by Egyptian people that broke the stillness of the night," they wrote.
Activists doubt that Egypt's dire human-rights record will improve under the new Vice-President, Omar Suleiman, who was in charge during last week's bloody crackdown.
The Times
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"