Human rights organisations have shone a spotlight on a series of disappearances this year, with a number of Egyptians trying to locate their sons and daughters in prisons and police stations, hampered by misinformation from the state. While the trend of disappearances is not new, observers suggest that the number of cases have risen sharply, with an estimated 160 cases monitored so far this year.

Human rights organisations have shone a spotlight on a series of disappearances this year, with a number of Egyptians trying to locate their sons and daughters in prisons and police stations, hampered by misinformation from the state. While the trend of disappearances is not new, observers suggest that the number of cases have risen sharply, with an estimated 160 cases monitored so far this year.

And now eyewitness accounts have raised fresh questions about the killings of three young men who were shot in April by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) in two separate incidents. Officials said the shootings happened after the suspects attacked the police during their arrest on charges of attempting to assassinate a judge examining cases involving the Muslim Brotherhood, and the killing of a police officer. Eyewitnesses, however, refute the MoI’s account.

On May 18, the MoI issued a statement saying it killed two young men, Ahmed Merie and Saeed Sayed, who were allegedly behind a botched attempt to assassinate Judge Moataz Khafaggi, Head of South Cairo Criminal Court, who was examining a number of cases incriminating Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

A photo of the dead bodies sprawled alongside an automatic rifle was released as part of a statement, saying they were killed during an exchange of fire with the police in the Giza Governorate. It said the police found a variety of weapons and ammunition in their possession.

The shooting took place on a four-meter-wide street in the Omraniah slum in the Giza Governorate. Houses on both sides of the street stand very close to one another. “A month ago, the police sealed the surrounding streets and members of the Special Forces asked the residents to stay in their homes and close the windows,” said Ahmad, a young man who happened to be watching a match of the Al-Ahly team in the street on the day of the incident. “It all happened swiftly. The killing of the two men took only 15 minutes.”

The two young men were killed inside a rented apartment on the ground floor of a building owned by a local family. The men came to Cairo from Upper Egypt to work in a supermarket and they rented the apartment 24 hours before the incident through a trusted estate agent in the area, according to the landlord.

The apartment, with its bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen, contained no furniture. The landlord said the two young men only brought a mattress and some food before the police came one day later. “We did not notice anything different about them,” said the landlady. “We saw their identity cards before renting out the apartment to them under a one-year contract at their request…they asked the estate agent to bring a plumber.”

Police instead of plumber

The next day, the estate agent arrived accompanied by the police rather than a plumber. “It appears they were under surveillance,” concluded the landlady. “Children were playing in front of the house and when they saw the police, they felt afraid and rushed to the second floor. The estate agent knocked on the door and told the young men he brought the plumber. When the door was opened, a Special Forces Officer stormed into the apartment. Then, we heard gunshots and knew the two young men were killed.”

The walls of the living room and the bedroom were smooth with no bullet holes except for a small one at the bottom of the wall opposite to the apartment door.

When asked whether or not the two young men exchanged fire with the police, she smiled and said: “We did not see weapons with the two young men when they came here and no one visited them in the 24 hours they spent in the apartment. Nobody could enter without our knowledge since the building’s door is automatic and we control it.”

The two bodies remained in the apartment for four hours without anyone calling for an ambulance. The police photographed them with an automatic rifle and sent reporters the photos with a statement announcing the death of two terrorists involved in the assassination attempt of Judge Khafaggi.

The killing of these two men did not attract media attention and no doubts were raised about the official statement. It remains unclear whether an arrest warrant or a shoot-to-kill order was issued against them.

Misinformation

Four days later, the MoI was involved in another incident: the killing of Islam Salah Eddin, a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Engineering in Ain Shams University. The MoI said he was affiliated with a terrorist group involved in the assassination of Colonel Wa’el Tahoun, an officer at the General Security of Eastern Cairo, who was shot 46 times by unknown assailants near his house in mid-April. Security statements said he was killed during a criminal incident and not for political reasons.

Among the residents where Tahoun worked, it was alleged that he was involved with gangs illegally dealing in historic artefacts during his service at the Mattariah Police Department, an organisation notorious for killings and tortures. Tahoun was also accused of killing dozens of demonstrators in front of the department during the January 25 Revolution, but the judiciary at the time did not convict him since the demonstrators were allegedly seeking to set the department on fire.

Once again, the facts are murky. While the MoI said it killed him in the Cairo desert after an exchange of fire, a student said Islam attended the exam one day before his killing and was arrested on campus.

Two people came to the examination committee accompanied by a faculty member and asked Islam to go to the Office of Student Affairs after the exam to submit a copy of his identity card. After the exam, Islam was arrested in front of the university, according to Islam Abu Almaaref, Islam’s colleague.

A few days later, Mohammed Hassan Suleiman, a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering in Ain Shams University, delivered Islam’s Humanities exam answer sheet to prove his attendance. “The student attended the final exam and his identity was verified in the committee then his dead body was found in the desert, while the MoI announced one day later that he was found hiding in a den. It is no longer acceptable to fabricate such stories,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Professor Suleiman said he saw the recordings of the college’s CCTV cameras while attending the police investigations. The recordings showed Islam leaving the university in a hurry, later returning from the opposite direction with three men running after him.

The initial forensic report says that Islam was shot more than five times. Human rights organizations, including the Freedom of Thought and Expression Centre, said that signs of torture were found on different parts of Islam’s body, statements which were later confirmed by his family who saw scars while bathing his corpse.

Refusing to talk to the media, his mother made a brief public message: “I had three children and now they have become two. I do not want to lose another one.”

Disappearances

The two incidents in May coincided with a campaign of enforced disappearance against dozens of students and activists who were kidnapped from public places. Some of them have turned up in prisons while others have not.

Human rights organizations documented a series of random arrests that began with the arrest of Ahmed Zaki, a freshman at the Faculty of Law, in his house on May 3, 2015. There is no information available on his case.

The group also reported the arrest of Abdurrahman Bili, member of the Student Union of the Faculty of Physical Therapy at October 6 University, on May 31 in the Maadi neighborhood. None of his family members know where he is, according to the network.

Meanwhile, the Student Union of Helwan University announced that Ahmed Khattab, a sophomore at the Faculty of Engineering at Helwan University, was arrested in front of his house on May 31 at night. Again, his whereabouts are unknown and he has not attended the rest of his exams. The Union said in a statement Khattab was the Secretary of the Students Union Education Committee.

The ‘Freedom for the Brave’ movement released a statement asking the families of the abducted persons to quickly get in touch with the District Attorney (DA) to identify the actual date of disappearance and avoid any fabrication of charges or subjection to torture.

True, the policy of arresting and kidnaping activists which the MoI seems to pursue is not new, but it has never been of such magnitude. The National Council for Human Rights – a governmental agency – says it has received some 55 complaints of enforced disappearance filed by the families of the disappeared, mainly political activists. However, independent human rights organizations and political movements estimate that 163 people have disappeared.

Some of these have shown up in prisons and police stations while being questioned without a lawyer. A prominent case was that of Israa Taweel, 23, who likes photography and has thousands of followers on Facebook. She is not officially affiliated with any political movement, but she participated in numerous demonstrations and revolutionary events in the past.

On June 1, Taweel and two young men, Suhaib Saad and Omar Ali, disappeared. Their families looked for them at police stations, hospitals and courts. After three days, Taweel’s family sent a telegraph to the DA and the Minister of Interior, asking where the three young people were and urging them to pursue the case via legal action.

“Ten days after the disappearance, we learned that Omar Ali sent a message from the Aqrab prison with a detainee in the ‘Marriott cell’ case,” said Duaa, Taweel’s sister. “The detainee said Ali arrived at the prison on June 8.”

Two weeks after her disappearance, Taweel appeared in the women’s prison in the city of El Qanater. A girl named Zeinab saw her when she was in the prison for a visit and told Duaa that Taweel was wearing black clothes which were, according to Duaa, the same clothes she was wearing on the day of her kidnapping. However, neither the MoI nor the DA confirmed her presence in that prison.

On the last day before the month of Ramadan, the police came to Taweel’s home and took her personal computer. They asked Duaa to go to the State Security Prosecution because Taweel would be referred to it in the following morning.

Duaa was not able to meet Taweel at the Prosecution, but when she went to the El Qanater prison, she saw her and gave her food and money. Yet, the MoI still denies that it has Saad and Ali even though they were kidnapped with Taweel.

Duaa is now among a growing number of Egyptians who frantically chase signs of their loved ones, despite an onslaught of misinformation. “We are confused, said Duaa. “All evidence proves that the police arrested them while the Ministry of the Interior denies that it has them.”