Case of Italian student Giulio Regeni ‘tip of the iceberg’ says human rights report as activists and protesters vanish

Hundreds of Egyptians have been forcibly disappeared and tortured in a “sinister” campaign to wipe out peaceful dissent in the most populous country in the Arab world, Amnesty International says in a new report.

Children as young as 14 as well as students, political activists and protesters have vanished without trace after security forces raided their homes. Many have been held for months at a time and kept blindfolded and handcuffed. At least 34,000 people are behind bars, the government admits.

Most of those who have “disappeared” are supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president who was deposed in July 2013 and eventually replaced by president Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi.

Amnesty’s report also mentions the case of the Italian Giulio Regeni, the Cambridge graduate student who was found dead, with his body bearing signs of torture, in Cairo in February.

“The terrible injuries sustained by Giulio Regeni are similar to those suffered by numerous people interrogated by the Egyptian security forces – his case is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Amnesty’s Felix Jakens.

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“We fear Regeni was abducted by state agents and tortured to death, and until we get a thorough independent investigation into his death those suspicions are only going to grow.”

Hundreds of people are thought to be secretly held in the national security agency offices in Lazoghly Square, Cairo, inside the interior ministry building. The building is close to Tahrir Square, scene of the mass protests that led to the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak in January 2011, the high point of the Arab spring.

Amnesty points to a spike in disappearances since Magdy Abd el-Ghaffar was appointed to head the ministry in March 2015. El-Ghaffar previously served in Egypt’s state security investigations, the secret police force notorious for abuses under Mubarak. Detainees said methods of torture were the same as those used in the Mubarak era.

“Enforced disappearance has become a key instrument of state policy in Egypt,” said Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther. “Anyone who dares to speak out is at risk, with counter-terrorism being used as an excuse to abduct, interrogate and torture people who challenge the authorities.



“The report exposes not only the brutality faced by those disappeared but also the collusion between national security forces and judicial authorities, who have been prepared to lie to cover their tracks or failed to investigate torture allegations, making them complicit in serious human rights violations.

The report says prosecutors have based charges on “confessions” extracted under duress and failed to investigate torture allegations by ordering medical examinations. On the rare occasions where detainees have been referred by prosecutors to an independent medical examination, their lawyers have not been permitted to see the results.



Amnesty catalogues the cases of 17 people who were held incommunicado for periods ranging between several days to seven months and denied access to their lawyers or families or any independent judicial oversight.

Victims and witnesses said a typical disappearance starts with security officers in plain clothes, supported by heavily-armed, black-clad special forces, arriving at a suspect’s home at night or in the early hours and forcing their way in at gunpoint. Once inside the officers detain, handcuff and blindfold the suspects, search for weapons and other incriminatory material and seize mobile phones and computers.

“Do you think that you have a price?” one security officer told a detainee. “We can kill you and put you in a blanket and throw you in any trash bin and no one will ask about you.”

The Egyptian authorities have repeatedly denied violations and accused Amnesty of “spreading false rumours” and supporting “terrorist” groups, including the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. But the authorities “did not provide factual evidence to corroborate their denials,” the report says.

