I’m receiving news that Police is cracking down on the Cinema Metro demo. Plainclothes security agents are dispersing protesters and people away.
Five people, I heard, have been arrested including activist Nadia Mabrouk, Waleed Salah, a student from the AUC named Dina, a foreign journalist and an unnamed protester.
The police also assaulted Reuters photographer Nasser Nouri, and smashed his camera battery.
A group of women protesters, including anti-torture activist Dr. Magda Adly, are cornered now inside the Excelsior Cafe, next to Cinema Metro.
UPDATE: Those who were under siege in the Excelsior Cafe have managed to leave, and they are on their way to the Press Syndicate. Talaat Harb is full of baltaggiya (plainclothes thugs used by the police).
UPDATE: The Press Syndicate is under siege by Central Security Forces, plainclothes thugs.
UPDATE: It seems all those kidnapped by the police were released, except for Kefaya activists Nadia Mabrouk and her fiance Waleed Salah who are spending the night in Qasr el-Nil Police Station, and will be transferred to the prosecutor in the morning on charges of possessing leaflets of anti-regime inflammatory content, disturbing public order, etc.
I was told by their lawyer that Nadia was beaten up during the arrest, and a State Security officer kept on hitting her several times against the metal stair steps of the Prison Truck. Later she was greeted with a slap on the face at Qasr el-Nil Police Station (where Kefaya activist Muhammad el-Sharqawi was brutally tortured and sexually abused last May), before she was thrown to al-takhsheeba.
Here are two press reports on the demo, from The Daily Star Egypt and the New York Times.
UPDATE: Reporters Without Borders denounced the police crackdown on journalists covering the protest.
I am amazed at how quick you are. I just got an sms about the arrests and You have written and published pictures! Enta 3zeem ya Hamalawy.
Actually I was with Nadia Mabrouk and some friends when she has been arrested. We tried to protect her but we were three against dozens of policemen… We saw her being beated up, falling down, and being violently caught by the police and put in the van… They said she will be released in few moments but it seems that it’s not the case… It was just incredible, how many the police was. It was impossible even to stand in front of the cinema or in the street, and nobody could enter or go out of the excelsior café, where Magda Adly and others were…
Cheers Rose.
Nicoducaire, Thanks for sharing your testimony. I heard several witnesses who said the arrest was brutal indeed. The good news is, Nadia and Waleed were released last night.