Another FJP Leader Assaulted by Strangers

Dr. Ahmed Abu Barakah, legal adviser to the Freedom and Justice Party, was assaulted and dragged in the street near the Interior Ministry in central Cairo by a number of unknown persons, who were moving in a private car in the early hours of Tuesday morning. 
 
Abu Barakah narrated the incident to Ikhwanweb, saying that at exactly two o’clock the morning of Tuesday, August 23, 2011, he was leaving the TV building in Maspero after participating in a program, and he was walking on his feet towards his home in the vicinity of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior. He reached Mohamed Mahmoud Street after the intersection of Mansour Street, near the Interior Ministry, carrying a small bag inside which he keeps his personal papers, his telephone and work cards. While he received a call from someone on his mobile phone, he felt a car coming from behind him, where it was moving on the opposite direction of traffic in this quiet street at this time late at night.

 Abu Barakah was surprised by the approaching the car; it was a black (BMW) and inside it, there were four people. The car veered sharply towards him. At the same moment, someone emerged from the back door of the car trying to snatch the bag that Abu Barakah carried, with the help of another next to him in the car. Abu Barakah resisted and tried to catch one of them, but the driver moved quickly and kept the car swaying left and right, then it deviated to the extreme left in an attempt to knock Abu Barakah with existing cars parked in the street.

 
Abu Barakah was dragged in the middle of the road, and the situation continued with the insistence of the attackers to seize the bag. After a few seconds, Abu Barakah become exhausted because of the many wounds he suffered as he was dragged through Mohammad Mahmoud and Fahmy Streets, then along the Interior Ministry and in front of its guards.

 
Abu Barakah had to let go his hands from the car in the dark and the narrow Fahmi street, and his condition became more difficult because of the injuries in his foot, his clothes were torn in the incident, and this has also prevented him from noticing the car plate numbers. But his shouts to the Interior Ministry guards sitting there was the last thing he did before going to the Abdeen police station at about 2:30 am, where the assistant detective was interested in investigating the incident and moved to inspect the scene.
 
The accused are still at large, and the case is still open, especially since it comes after the armed robbery in which Dr. Mohamed Beltagy, Secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party in Cairo, was the victim last Friday on the ring road near the village of Meetnama in Qalyoubia province. Before that, another FJP official, Dr. Gamal Hishmat, was subjected to death threats, which a citizen disclosed. The Damanhur authorities are still pursuing investigation on the crime. Moreover, there was also the incident where Dr. Amr Hamzawy, a leader of Egypt Free Party and the actress Basma were recently attacked by a number of thugs.