Islamists accuse Egypt police of kidnap, torture

Islamists accuse Egypt police of kidnap, torture


Egypt”s main opposition movement the Muslim Brotherhood Monday accused police of having tortured and subsequently “disappeared” three of their number.

Brotherhood MP Sobhi Saleh said that nothing had been heard from Mustafa Mohammed Ahmed Imam, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Imam, and Mohammed Ali Farid since he said they were arrested July 18.

The interior ministry refused to comment on the allegations and was unable to say whether the men, all students at Alexandria University, had even been arrested.

“I accuse the interior ministry of having kidnapped and tortured the students,” Saleh told journalists.

Brotherhood lawyer Khalaf Ahmed accused the security forces of wanting to hold the students in secret until their alleged traces of torture disappeared.

Egypt, accusing the Islamists of wanting to destabilize the state, has over the summer rounded up dozens of members of the banned Brotherhood, which controls about one-fifth of seats in parliament where they sit as independents.

Rights groups accuse the Egyptian police of systematically using torture against detainees.