mahalla archives — Page 40 of 160

‘All the people were tortured’

Posted on 14/09/200807/02/2021 By 3arabawy

Eman, a legal administrator in the Education Ministry and the sister of Mahalla defendant Raafat Muhammad, interviewed last Saturday:
“He was taken from the house on 10 April, 3am, by an informer form Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station named Ibrahim el-Game’i and the Criminal Investigations officer Khaled Ammar. Later he was taken to State Security’s office in Mahalla.
“They tortured him,” she said while collapsing into tears. “All the people (prisoners) were tortured. The officers and informers stepped on their (detainees’) private parts with their shoes, while asking them to identify persons in pictures. They electrically shocked my brother on his shoulders. He and the rest were blindfolded most of the time, and had their hands handcuffed from the back.”

The Mahalla Prisoners

Posted on 13/09/200807/02/2021 By 3arabawy

“Are we coming from Israel?!” shouted the Mahalla prisoners from their court cage before the start of the trial session, last Saturday. “Prisoners of War receive better treatment than us.” Addressing the police officers and informers, some of whom were involved in their torture, in the court room: “You are shewayet kafara (a bunch of infidels)! You don’t feel what we are going through!”

Mahalla Circus

Posted on 13/09/200807/02/2021 By 3arabawy

Putting aside the fact that it’s a kangaroo court to start with, surreal accusations against persons who were not even present in Mahalla during the events, etc.. the court itself is a circus: People standing on the chairs, the prisoners shouting from the cage every now and then, the troops moving nervously up and down the room, the Bashas and their walkie-talkies, and chaos, just the usual chaos of anything organized by the state…

Last Saturday, after noise from the court cage, flamboyant defense lawyer Ahmad Hegazi started shouting back at the prisoners trying to restore order, but suddenly got all hyped up himself, so he jumped on the bench and went giving a theatrical speech denouncing Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal.

Judge Muhammad Sameer usually whispers, and you can’t hear what he’s saying. And the room noise doesn’t help. Every now and then, he’d call for silence, like a school principal. Silence would fall for minutes, but then ascends back crescendo-style. At some point, he asked for a microphone, so some court official brought him that speakerphone below..It for sure felt like school playground.