EGYPT MB News
September 15, 2017
3 minutes read

Muslim Brotherhood Leader Mohamed Sowaidan Suffers Heart Attack Under Severe Torture

The family of Mohamed Sowaidan, senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Beheira (Egypt), announced it received information this afternoon that he had suffered a severe heart attack while being tortured. Sowaidan had been abducted by coup security forces on August 8, 2016 and has been subjected to enforced disappearance, but it is reported he has been taken to a government hospital under strict guard.

His family holds the coup regime’s interior ministry, the director of security of Alexandria and Beheira, and the national security apparatus fully responsible for Sowaidan’s life and physical and psychological well-being, and demands his immediate release.

Sowaidan’s family also urged coup authorities to let his loved ones know which hospital he is now being held, so they can provide full medical care to save his life or try to transfer him to a more specialized better-equipped hospital at their own expense.

Sowaidan was arrested on August 8, 2016 from his home in Alexandria Governorate. The contents of his apartment were destroyed, and his belongings stolen, including his family’s cell phones, laptop. He was subjected to enforced disappearance since that date until he was transferred to the hospital this (Wednesday) afternoon after extreme torture and ill-treatment.

Local and international human rights organizations have monitored the kidnapping of Sowaidan and issued dozens of statements documenting the incident. His family had lodged many complaints with the Damanhur and Alexandria prosecutors’ offices and sent dozens of faxes and telegraphs to the Attorney General and the Minister of Interior about the abduction and to demand disclosure of his whereabouts.

Meanwhile, through social networking, activists launched campaigns to urge coup authorities to reveal Sowaidan’s place of detention, and to show solidarity with him, through the Hashtags #محمد_سويدان_فين (Where is Mohamed Sowaidan), #سويدان_فين (Where is Sowaidan) and #سويدان_فى_خطر (Sowaidan in Danger) amid huge interaction by activists.