What Happened In Kifaya Demonstration: Detainee


While claiming that Egypt is waiting for the constitutional amendments that will change the country into a Mecca of freedom and democracy and spending millions of public funds to pass these amendments, the Egyptian autocratic regime is still persecuting all opposition powers that declare their rejection to these amendments that harm the Egyptian people, lead to more repression, pave the way for the file of Tawreeth (hereditary power transition from Mubarak Sr. tt Mubarak Jr.) and rig the elections through sidelining the judicial supervision over them.


Huge numbers of central security solders blocked, under the supervision of the State Security Police officers ( who monitor the political activity in Egypt and have the upper hand), Tahrir Square, central Cairo, and prevented all people from standing in it in order to prevent the peaceful demonstration of Kifaya Movement, an Egyptian opposition movement.


Kifaya (enough in English) called for Thursday peaceful demonstration to declare its rejection to the constitutional amendments and calling for boycotting what it called ” the farce” of the constitutional amendments .


After the security forces prevented any citizen from standing in Tahrir Square and closed all side streets leading to the square to prevent the peaceful demonstration, Kifaya elements gathered in side streets neighboring the square and moved in small groups to stir people and declare the aims of the demonstration; they moved in downtown streets ” Sherif street – Al-Bustan street – Talaat Harb street”; the security forces surrounded these groups and arrested 12 Kifaya activists including:


Dr. Abdul Khalek Farouk


Mahmoud Al Wardani


Mohamed Adel, blogger


Mohamed Taher, blogger


Mohamed Malek


Amr Ibrahim


Nagi Rashad


Walid Salah


Essam Shaban


and took from them the placards and signs that they were raising in the demonstration.


Dozens of the movement members and activists gathered in front of the Nasserist Party headquarters in Talaat Harb street and continued chanting slogans till the security forces besieged them and attacked and harshly beat them, including many of Kifaya leaders like Dr. Karima Al Hefnawi and Dr. Abdul Halim Kandeel.


Another security unit squeezed and harshly treated another group topped by Dr. Abdul Wahab Al Meseiri, the general coordinator of Kifaya Movement, Mohamed Abdul Qoddous, a board member of the Press Syndicate, Dr. Magdi Qorqor, a leader of the frozen Islamic Labour Party, and a coordinator of Kifaya Movement; the security forces made the karate groups toughly squeezed the demonstrators, leading to injuring some of them.


The security forces detained also any activist in Tahrir Square, including many ordinary people who were not members of the demonstration; the security forces arrested these ordinary people and beat them in front of the media cameramen, including:


Bahaa Saber


Ahmed Mahmoud, Karim


Nael Yahya


Fathi Farid


Ahmed Abdul Gawaad


Hamada Abdul Latif (the security forces arrested him while he was speaking with a foreign radio station).


The security forces hunted many activists and detained them when they approached Talaat Harb square or Tahrir Square, including Khaled Abdul Hamid, Dr. Yahya Al Gazzaz and Mohamed Badr.


The security forces took the detainees to Al-Darrasa central security camp and assembled them inside vehicles again; then these vehicles moved randomly in Cairo streets; some people were detained individually and were put in vehicles for more than five hours, but officers provided them with drink and food.


The security forces sent all detainees to Al-Dhaher police station; about 40 detainees were cramped in two prison cells, one of them was 3 * 4 metres and contained about 14 detainees; the security forces released later 8 detainees:


Dr. Abdul Khalek Farouk


Dr. Yahya Al Gazzaz, a university professor and a Kifaya Movement coordinato


Mohamed Taher, blogger


Fathi Farid


Mohamed Badr and others”.


25 other detainees remained in prison until the following day and they appeared before Qasr Al-Nil prosecution (N.B. according to information from lawyers, all prosecutors who heard us were delegated from the state security prosecution, an unconstitutional prosecution which was established by a ministerial decree); the detainees were brought to the prosecution at about at 11.00 AM and they appeared before the prosecution at about 4.00 PM and the prosecution ordered all detainees released from the police station.


During their detention, the detainees continued chanting slogans against the constitutional amendments, the ruling regime, Tawreeth, tyranny and the state of emergency.


After that, the detainees were sent to Al-Dhaher police station where the officers hindered the measures of releasing them; accordingly, the detainees staged a hunger strike because of not releasing them but they canceled that strike after Mr. Ahmed Saif Al-Islam Hamad, the manager of Hesham Mubarak center for human rights, visited them and promised them negotiations are underway to release them in the early morning; this was confirmed by all officers in the police station; however, the security broke this promise, and the detainees staged, on Saturday, a hunger strike, and continued knocking at the doors of the cells chanting slogans ” the hunger strike is legitimate; we are on hunger strike until we are released from prison”; the detainees refused to stop the hunger strike after the security attempted to bargain to make them eat; the detainees managed to exercise a strong pressure on the State Security Police and the police station on the one hand in addition to pressures from their colleagues who staged a sit-in in front of the police station on the other hand, in addition to the media that came to cover the sit-in and the hunger strike.


I have noticed the following in the prison cells and the treatment with detainees:


First: The prison cells were so narrow; one of the detention cells was 3 * 4 metres and it contained 11 detainees; the other was 6 * 3 metres and it contained about 14 detainees; Ikhwanweb correspondent managed to take photos of them through his camera phone which he hid in his clothes after the security forces have arrested him.


Second: The toilets are not suitable for human use.


Third: The detainees received tough treatment from the state security: visits were banned, their lawyers were not allowed to visit them throughout the period of detention except when the detainees declared their hunger strike, the police officers allowed lawyers in cells to attempt to make them stop the hunger strike.


Fourth: Conflicting orders from State Security Police officers.


Fifth: There was no difference between Muslim Brotherhood detainees and Kifaya detainees; the regime gives of them the same maltreatment, repression and persecution, the same policy it will use towards any one opposition to the constitutional amendments.


Sixth: MB, Kifaya members were detained in this crackdown; the system did not differentiate between them.

* Ikhwanweb correspondent and blogger of Maiet


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