Egyptian soldiers beat and tortured protesters they had arrested at a demonstration near the Defence Ministry this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on May 19, citing victims and lawyers. The New York-based group said soldiers arrested at least 350 protesters, including 10 children and 16 women, on May 4 amid violence over a sit-in begun a week earlier in protest at the exclusion from Egypt’s presidential race of Hazem Abu Ismail.
Military prosecutors ordered them detained pending trial in military courts and at least 256 are still held, HRW said, adding many of those released told of torture and beatings. “The brutal beating of both men and women protesters shows that military officers have no sense of limits on what they can do,” said Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director. The group also said the military had failed to protect protesters from attacks by unidentified armed groups on May 2 in central Cairo’s Abbasiya district near the Defence Ministry.