Skip to main content

Philip Rizk and Diaa Eddin Gad: the inside story on Egypt's 'state of fear'


From the Jerusalem Post

"At 1:30am [Monday] when we had just gone to bed, the doorbell rang. Five plain clothed men and two in full riot gear and machine guns stood outside our door. They wanted to enter to search the house," the family wrote on a Facebook website created to update concerned friends and colleagues of Rizk's disappearance.

"We found out that they were looking for evidence against Philip. Two men entered and began searching through the papers of our home office. In the meantime we contacted a German Embassy official and a professor from AUC as well as some friends. They all came immediately," the posting added.

The following day, Rizk's sister Jeannette reported that "secret police" had entered her apartment, which she shared with her brother, in search of incriminating evidence.

"Phillip's hard drives, cameras, iPod, as well as several boxes of books, including both intellectual and material property are missing from the apartment. No money was taken," she wrote.

According to her, the "intruders used Phillip's key" and proceeded to leave it on the desk when they left. She did not know what they were looking for and "no incriminating evidence of any sort could possibly be found, as none exists; the impunity with which personal property was taken is deeply disturbing."


And from the New York Times
“They said I was a liar, that I was not telling them the truth, threatening me that I would be punished in certain ways unless I gave them the whole story,” Mr. Rizk said in a telephone interview on Wednesday...

...
...But two hours away from Mr. Rizk’s leafy upscale neighborhood in Cairo, Amaal Abdel Fattah Taha was red in the face, sobbing in fear, terrified that her son, Diaa Eddin Gad, had been killed by the state. Mr. Gad, 23, a high school dropout and blogger, was arrested Friday, too, when four police officers grabbed him as he stepped outside the door of his family’s apartment...

...Mr. Gad was arrested after he took part in a peaceful demonstration in Cairo organized by the Wafd Party, a largely powerless, secular liberal political party.

But he is also known as the man behind an Arabic-language blog, soutgadeb.blogspot.com — “An Angry Voice.” He describes himself on the blog as an Egyptian citizen who loves his country. He goes on to mock President Hosni Mubarak as a “Zionist agent.” At one point, he refers to the president as Ehud Mubarak, a play on the name of Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak.

Insulting the president is punishable by a year in prison.more


More info: TortureinEgypt.net

Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
Egyptian security must be called to account, despite the release of Philip Rizk
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Coronavirus-free' Gaza prepares for the worst

Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of  the novel coronavirus  spreading across the world. As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus - officially known as COVID-19 - has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with  some joking  that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario.  But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned.  "If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible
Post a Comment
Read more

Boycott of New York diamond dealer launched to protest settlement construction

Members of Adalah NY call for boycott of Leviev for its crimes against Palestinians and South Africans New York, NY, May 9 – On the day before Mother’s Day, 40 New York human rights advocates gathered at the Leviev jewelry store on Madison Avenue and called on throngs of weekend Madison Avenue shoppers to boycott Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in West Bank villages including Bil’in and Jayyous. Mother’s Day is one of the biggest jewelry shopping periods in the US annually. The New York protest came as controversy is growing in Norway over Norwegian government investments in Leviev’s company Africa-Israel . The New York protesters also commemorated Bassem Abu Rahma from Bil’in who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers last month during a peaceful protest against the construction on Bil’in’s land of Israel’s wall and of the Mattityahu East settlement by a Leviev company. Thanks to vivapalestina.us (not co
Post a Comment
Read more

Support striking Palestinian quarry workers demanding their rights from Israeli employer

On 16 June, 35 Palestinian workers at Salit Quarries in Mishor Adumim (in area C, east of Jerusalem, in the Occupied West Bank) began a strike. The workers, organized with the independent union WAC-Ma'an, are demanding an end to exploitation and humiliation, and insist on signing a first collective agreement. Salit Quarries’ main customer is Readymix Industries (Israel). The total reliance of Salit Quarry on Readymix as their biggest and by far the most important customer puts responsibility on Readymix to make sure that their clients abides by labour laws and safeguards elementary rights for the workers of Salit. We call upon Readymix to urge the Salit management to terminate this unnecessary strike by signing the collective agreement with the workers and WAC-Ma’an. Click this protest link to send your message. The text of the message is as follows: I write to you to express my grave concern about the failure of Salit management to sign a collective agreement with the workers of
Post a Comment
Read more