In the hands of the secret police
Ursula LindseyMany Egyptian human rights activists arrested in the last few days remain in detention. A list of those detained follows after the jump. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of others that are also being detained, interrogated and tortured right now. Frightening as the attacks on foreign journalists have been, most of our colleagues have emerged relatively unscathed. It's the Egyptians being rounded up by police and intelligence that I truly fear for. For a disturbing account of what might be happening to them, see this New York Times article by two journalists who were held in intelligence interrogation facility the night before last. (Another scary account of people targeted by a coordinated police-civilian mob is here).
Currently unaccounted for:
1. Ahmed Seif El Islam (Human Rights Lawyer and former Director of HMLC)
2. Mohsen Beshir (HMLC Lawyer)
3. Mostafa Al Hassan (HMLC Lawyer)
4. Mouna AlMasry (HMLC Researcher)
5. Al Sayed Feky (HMLC Lawyer)
6. Fatma Abed (FDEP Volunteer)
7. Shahdan (FDEP Volunteer)
8. Nadine Abu Shadi (FDEP Volunteer)
9. Nadia Hashem (FDEP VOlunteer)
10. Ahmed Taher (Unconfirmed Name)
11. Ahmed Hamdy Mahmoud (Student from Assiut - source Gamal Eid)
12. Said Haddadi (AI)
13. ِAnother AI Staff member
14. Daniel Williams (HRW)
15. Sofia Amara (French citizen working for Magneto Press)
16. Pedro do Fonseca (Portugese Citizen working for Magneto Presse)
17. Kamal Samir (Volunteer/activist - unconfirmed)
18. Doaa (unconfirmed)
19. Amr Aly
20. Islam Gevara
21. Sameh Rushdi
22. Mohamed Helmy
23. Shadi Mohamed
UPDATE: I hear the staff of the Hesham Mubarak Law Center has been released
Reader Comments (8)
Update: Daniel Williams has been released. We spoke briefly this morning...
Also missing is blogger Wael Ghonim ( @Ghonim )
Congrats. To masterful crisis management by Sueliman and Tantawy.
As Merkel said in Munich a few hours ago, source the BBC,
"German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that protests in the Middle East awaken memories of the events that ended communism in eastern Europe, and declared that "there will be change in Egypt."
However, Merkel — who grew up in East Germany and entered politics as communism crumbled amid protests in 1989 — said any transition needs to be orderly, and cautioned against assuming that the West's democratic model can simply be exported elsewhere."
In conclusion, the time is not yet.
Your 'soul mates' will be out on the streets in the course of the next few days. They are 'small fish'
Thank you for this message, I have been thinking about the protesters leaving Tahrir directly into the hands of the security police with a sinking heart. Please keep up this list, publish it, make it known to the world, it must be known that the youth who are writing today a page of Egyptian history may disappear/are disappearing insde Mubarak's gaols without a trace.
@ RGLondon :
"Managing a crisis" here simply means wielding the guns. Not that complicated.
You seem to be confused. Nobody is "importing" anything here, the movement comes from within Egyptian civil society, and has precedents over the years. It didn't just happen overnight. If anything has been "imported", it is the support from Western nations for brutal military fools like Mubarak all over the Middle East, to keep the populations at heel and under the boot. You should try to inform yourself a little bit.
A couple of insipid comments by Angela Merkel are not authoritative here.
@RGLondon, Merkels opinion is not the general opinion of the german people or media. Regarding her faked memories of 1989: after her statement today a lot of people today here in Germany pointed out on the internet, that she was in no way part of this 1989 revolution. They were really angry and embarassed to hear her statements regarding revolution and transition. Its really ridicolous: In the 80ies she was in the SED, she had privileges, could study, was not at all opposed to the DDR. 1989 she did not take part in demonstrations, no one saw her there. Her "opposition" and second career started 1990 when for unknown reasons Helmut Kohl selected her for his staff. She is widely regarded as an opportunist here, always looking and waiting, in what directions things go, and then coming out big-mouthed, pretending to have been always of the "successful" opinion. Merkel had a "close relationship" with Mubarak, btw, until things changed, and now, well, there you go.
The Egyptians should not listen to Merkel or Clinton, they should just decide for themselves what fits them. I have a lot of respect for their achievements and their revolution.
After reading an online NYTimes article to the effect that "the West" supports a transition that would allow for Mubarak to remain in the position of President until elections in September, I am appalled. I feel that this will be revealed, in history's chronicles, as a violation of the people of Egypt's human rights. As a US citizen living in New Mexico, I've been closely watching events unfold in Tahrir Square and elsewhere in Egypt and the Middle East, and have been heartened to witness the will of the people to create a democracy out of generations of cruel repression. To allow these protesters to fall into the hands of the secret police et al is an atrocity. Mubarak must go now! There is no other viable option for the Egyptian people.
Please see the following from the Times, dated Feb 6, 2011:
"Week in Review: 2 Detained Reporters Saw Secret Police's Methods Firsthand
By SOUAD MEKHENNET and NICHOLAS KULISH
For a day, we were trapped in a brutal maze that threw abuses of Egyptians into dreadful relief.
As a German, Merkel sickens me! I have been following the protests on ALJ, and it has become clear again, that the western goverments are money whores all together. There is a growing dislike in my country towards this kind of politics, but the Germans are still to well, to act on it on a broad basis. Right now, our tax money gets shared all over Europe for various reasons, while Germans have to work longer until eligible for pension, and spend less on wellfare.
As you can see, our problems are nothing compared to what plagues the egyptian people, but it is crucial to understand, that no matter how Germans vote, there is a circle of roughly 100 people, who will always have a seat at the german parliament, because aprox. half of the seats get appointed by our PARTIES, not the people.
So dont mind Merkel please, she doesnt represent the views of the german people!