Egypt: List of detained lawyers & activists from Hisham Mubarak Law Centre in Cairo

Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, reported yesterday that several international and Egyptian human rights activists, journalists and lawyers were picked up in a raid on the Hisham Mubarak Law Center in Cairo. The activists are currently detained at an unknown location in Egypt, and no news has been heard from them since their arrest. According to Bouckaert, the arrests are part of a clear campaign against independent eyewitnesses of the violence in Egypt, including journalists and civil society activists.” If you know more names tell @bouckap!#jan25http://is.gd/FS8kG2

The following people have been detained:

1. Dan Williams, US citizen, Human Rights Watch emergency researcher
2. Ahmed Seif al-Islam, Egyptian citizen,former director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Cent
3. Sofia Amara, French citizen, journalist with French agency Magneto Presse
4.Pedro da Fonseka, Portuguese citizen, journalist with French agency Magneto Presse
5. Mohsen Beshir, Egyptian national, lawyer at Hisham Mubarak Law Center
6. Mona el-Masri, Egyptian national, volunteer w Front to Defend Egypt’s Protesters (FDEP)
7. Mostafa al-Hassan, Egyptian national, lawyer for HMLC office in Aswan, also def comm of FDEP
8. Ahmed Tahir, Egyptian national, still confirming details
9. Fatima Abed, Egyptian national, volunteer with the Front to Defend Egypt’s Protesters (FDEP)
10. Shahenda Abushadi, Egyptian national, volunteer w Front to Defend Egypt’s Protesters (FDEP)
11. Nadine Abushadi, Egyptian national, volunteer w Front to Defend Egypt’s Protesters (FDEP)
12. Nadia (Nadine Abushadi’s mother), Egyptian national
13. Mohammed Hamdi Mahmood , Egyptial national, student
14. Said Haddadi, French-Moroccan dual citizen, Amnesty International researcher
15. A second Amnesty International researcher (name withheld)

This is an uncomplete list at this point.

Quotes Foreign Policy:

The Law Center is a hub and meeting space for various human rights and civil society groups in Egypt and has been amazingly active since the protests began Jan. 25. On Thursday morning, a joint squad of police and military personnel in their respective uniforms raided the Center, interrogated all inside, and forcibly transported dozens of Egyptians and foreigners alike to an unknown detention facility.

Police and army personnel were heard ordering the activists up against the wall, started yelling at them, and then claimed they were there to protect them from the pro-regime thugs who were assembled and chanting just outside the doors and who harassed the activists as they were escorted from the building. “We could let you go out in the crowd and they will kill you or you can come with us,” the police and army personnel said, according to Human Rights Watch Washington DirectorTom Malinowski.

Following the on-site interrogations, the police and army personnel accused all the Egyptians working at the Law Center of being affiliated with Hamas and accused all the foreigners at the Center of being affiliated with Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

Posted on 4 February, 2011 by Mathias Vermeulen