In court, Dr. Mohamed El-Beltagy – a leading figure of the Muslim Brotherhood- mentioned during his testimony in Rabaa sit-in evacuation a new torture episode that occurred to him last Saturday August 6 ,2016.
El-Beltagy said he has recently been exposed to a new torture incident at the hands of Hassan al-Sohagy, the minister of interior’s deputy for prisons department and the director of prisons departments as well as Mohamed Aly the chief of detectives of the prisons department.
He stated that they tightened his hands with cuffs and he was forced to face the wall with his hands up. El-Beltagy said that they forced him to take off the prison uniform and they filmed him with his underclothes while cursing and insulting him as well as insulting his mother using bad words.
It is noteworthy that this isn’t he first incident that El-Beltagy is exposed to torture by Hassan Al-Sohagy. In one of the Rabaa trial sessions on May 2015, Dr.El-Beltagy said that he was tortured in Al-Aqrab (the Scorpion) Prison by the director of the prisons department.
El Belatgy said that he has been tortured to withdraw his charge prosecution against al-Sisi for the murder of his daughter Asmaa El-Beltagy in Rabaa sit-in. (Hundreds, if not thousands, of peaceful protesters were shot dead in Rabaa square by the Egyptian armed forces and police)
El-Beltagy added that al-Sohagy enters to his cell in the middle of the night with dogs. However, no one has investigated the incident nor the abuses against detainees inside the Scorpion prison in Tora until now.
The notorious Scorpion prison is known as the grave as many died in detention. A group of human rights organizations declared that at least 264 political prisoners have died in detention since July 2013.
Since the military coup in 2013 led by al-Sisi against the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian authorities have launched a massive crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood which is the largest political opposition against the military rule. Hundreds of members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed in demonstrations or in custody as a result of torture and medical negligence.
