Protesters in Lazoughly Sq chanting: “We are not afraid of prisons… Khaled’s blood won’t go in vain… Repeat with me ‘Down with Mubarak’…”
Tag: lazoughly
The AUC Gestapo
Around a couple of years before I left the AUC in 2001, the administration had brought this notorious State Security Police General Ashraf Kamal to be in charge of campus security. During my interrogation under torture in Lazoughly in October 2000, the SS officers were repeatedly bragging the “AUC is ours. Our men run it.”
What went on from the moment this General took control has been nothing but the increasing “militarization” of the university security: more guards, more walkie talkies, an increasing gestapo-like attitude in dealing with student activists, more restrictions on political activism, severe intimidation of activists and staff.
AUC professors had spoken to me several times about this guy, expressing their sheer frustration that more or less he has the final say in how things are run in the administration, not the university’s academic staff–which is the same complaint heard from their colleagues in the local universities.
It seems now General Ashraf and his henchmen are busying themselves with the workers on campus.. I was reading this blog, when I came across stories of workers who died during the four-year effort to erect the new AUC campus out in the desert. General Ashraf didn’t have any doubts whom to blame for the deaths.
The tragedies happened because of human error, said Gen. Ashraf Kamal, head of security. “All the deaths occurred through mistakes made by the workers themselves, not by the company,” he said.
And if that isn’t enough:
Campus security was in fact involved in quelling protests, after several hundred workers rallied for the family of one dead worker who was left without compensation, according to Gen. Mohsen Wadie, deputy director for security.
Another Facebook activist detained and abused
Troubling news about Ahmad Maher!
Maher, facebook group editor, was kidnapped for 14 hours, blindfolded, handcuffed, tortured @new cai police st & lazoghli
— Nora Younis (@NoraYounis) May 8, 2008
The Daily News Egypt reports:
The administrator and arguably the real creator of the April 6 Strike group on Facebook Ahmad Maher was detained briefly Wednesday and beaten, his lawyer told Daily News Egypt.
Khaled Ali, who is the head of the Hisham Mubarak Center for Human Rights, posted details of the incident on the center’s website saying Maher was detained for the better part of the day before being released at dawn.
According to Ali, Maher was near his home in New Cairo and on his way to work at 1 pm when he was forced from his car and thrown into a microbus where he was transported to the local police station.
He was beaten there and then transported to State Security headquarters in Lazoughly downtown at 4 pm. There, he was reportedly tied at the feet and hung upside down and beaten again, Ali said.
Maher was dragged by the rope and was threatened with rape, all the while being questioned about the Facebook group and its password, Ali added.
When a group is created on Facebook, a password is not needed, with the creators and chosen “officers” given direct access to moderation of the group.
Maher was told that he amounted to nothing, the country was under control and a bunch of kids would not be able to change anything.
Ali told Daily News Egypt that State Security officers were angry that Maher had ignored a previous request to appear at the headquarters for questioning.
And then the bad-cop-good-cop game continues:
At that point another officer came in and shouted at the ones beating Maher telling them he had not ordered them to do this. The officer then told Maher they knew he was a patriot but that there were others within the group who were attempting to sabotage the country.
At that point the officer told him he would be released and he was given his clothes and other articles with the exception of his camera which the officer promised would be returned later. He was then taken back to his car at 4 am.