The Necessity of Absolute Elimination of State Security Intelligence Apparatus


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The Necessity of Absolute Elimination of State Security Intelligence Apparatus

Cairo, 13th of December 2005

Ms. Asmaa Mohamed Ahmed Horeiz, 24 years, is a trainee journalist in Al Karama newspaper. She started her day covering the run offs of the second stage of parliamentary elections. She ended thrown off a black car after midnight in the middle of Abdel Moneim Riad Square, upon the orders of "El Pasha" who spent two hours of that evening using his sick mind torturing and trying to break her, projecting onto her all his sickness. Whenever it became clear to him that the young journalist was unbreakable he would scream: we are the only authority in the country which can do whatever it wants.. We are the State Security Intelligence!!

With those barbaric words, the Pasha summarized the nature of the state security apparatus in Egypt: a sticky, octopus like apparatus with arms reaching everywhere throughout Egypt.

A cruel apparatus, using men and women, those who have records of violent crimes and sometimes those who don't; carrying their mobile phones with "private numbers" which never show on the screen; hiding their eyes behind dark glasses for fear that they may be identified or may be because they think those glasses hide the direction of their watching eyes; enjoying an illegitimate impunity based on tyranny and the emergency state. They are everywhere, something like a plague, wandering around on the streets, amidst the demonstrations, in campus and in the prosecutors' offices, at poll stations and in court houses; even in homes. They carry the virus of terror and try to infect the hearts of each and every Egyptian.

It has become absolutely necessary that this apparatus be eliminated. Some may think that such an objective is unreasonable. Yet, we believe that this is the only reasonable objective. It is no longer enough to demand that they are brought to justice, since that is pending upon the approval of the public prosecutor, himself appoints by the executive body, for which it constitutes the safety valve. It is no longer enough to ask them to resign, since the authority capable of resigning them is the same one which has appointed them with exactly that objective: top disseminate terror and fear, granting them impunity and that they are not accountable except to that same authority.

They are actually above the law. They are present at interrogation sessions in violation to the law. They force themselves onto court houses, standing behind the judges. They own offices, personnel and spies inside universities, government, trade union and students institutions in violation of the law. They are proud to be State Security Intelligence! They lock their victims up, tie their hands and feet, blindfold them, kick, slap, beat and electrocute them and feel proud about their omnipotence!.

Asmaa was not the first victim of this barbaric apparatus, the elimination of which we should have demanded long time ago. Nor will she be the last.

Torture in SSI offices is a daily routine in Egypt.

Harassment and kidnapping, it seems, has become a new policy of the Ministry of Interior, after its officers have managed to escape all justice after the crimes they have committed and supervised on the black Wednesday of the 25th of May, the files of which are still kept, unused, in the drawers of the prosecutor general.

The story of Asmaa and those of others who were either injured or killed during the "democratic" elections in Egypt over the past few weeks, have come to remind us of the crimes committed by the State Security Intelligence Pashas in mid day and of the helplessness of the law in bringing justice to their victims, either because the public prosecution does not recognize a violation worth bringing the matter to justice or because the blindfolded, handcuffed victim cannot "without doubt" identify the criminals who blindfolded and handcuffed him/her.

We no longer need evidence. The evidence is all over the streets. Some are buried in graves. There is no way to bring justice to all those except by eliminating this criminal apparatus.

please find the testimony of Ms. Asmaa Mohamed Ahmed Horeiz.

Name: Asmaa Mohamed Ahmed Horeiz
Age: 24 years
Profession: Trainee journalist at El Karama newspaper
Crime: Covering parliamentary elections in Egypt
Date: 26 November 2005
Asmaa was asked by her newspaper to cover the elections in El Qalubeyya governorate. She finished at around 11 p.m. at the Shubra 2nd poll station. Suddenly she was attacked by a number of men who twisted her arms behind her back, covered her mouth and pushed her into a black car. The kidnapping took place in front of police officers and riot police surrounding the poll station. In the car she was blindfolded. She tried to resist, but one of the men was pressing hard on her mouth to prevent her from screaming. She found it hard to breathe. They used a rope to tie her hands behind her back.

Asmaa says:
It seems there was an important man in the car. He was talking over the phone. He was saying: yes pasha, we are on our way. When we arrived he told me to go down. I said I won't. Untie me first. He pulled me out of the car to the street and started dragging me on the asphalt. I told him to let go and I shall walk. But he asked some other man to carry me until the office.

After a while they removed the blindfold. She found herself in an office with a big picture of the President of the Republic. No names on the desk. In front of her was a man whom they referred to as "Pasha" so she realized he was an officer. He said: Is that her? One of his men replied: Yes it is Pasha. Then the interrogations started amidst slapping and beating. There were three other men standing behind her while the Pasha was interrogating her. Most probably they are the same ones who have kidnapped her and brought her to the office. They were holding her so that the pasha could beat her "properly". They too would every now and them beat her and pull her hair, especially if she defied the pasha. Her mobile rang. The pasha reached for her handbag and replied. Somebody was asking for her. The pasha said she was not available and closed the mobile altogether. He continued to search her bag. He got out the digital camera which she used to document her work. He screened through the picture, his face changed and started to insult her. When he finished he put the camera on his desk and started to move around her in circles: What organization do you belong to, sweetie? She said: I am a journalist and I am doing my job. He said: Tell me which organization. Be sure you are going to tell me. Are you with the brotherhood? Again she said: I am a journalist under training. He ordered the men to untie her.

Asmaa says:
They untied me and then he asked me to sign a paper which I had not read. I refused. I asked him, why you are arresting me. The newspaper must be looking for me and this will have serious consequences. He asked me: what do you think you can do? I told him there is a law in this country. He said, we are above the law. We are the highest authority in the country. We are the only authority that is accountable to no one. I told him, you are only a group of thugs. He got irritated and shouted: we are state security intelligence. I felt he got more irritated when he said that, as if he was provoked into saying it. He took everything out of my bag: my IDs, the pictures, money (about 200 LE) and some work I had done for the newspaper in addition to the day's work.

All the time while Asmaa was replying to the pasha she never gave him the impression that he is breaking her nor that she is afraid of something that she might be hiding. And every time she replied to him a man standing behind her would pull her hair and hit her head against the desk and with every bang against the desk the pasha's voice would rise: will you or will you not confess? Every time Asmaa would repeat that she has nothing to confess about. The pasha moved towards her. With his hand he held the collar of her shirt and started t o play with a golden necklace she was wearing. He asked her: what is that written on the necklace, is that the slogan of the brotherhood or the slogan of the other organization you belong to? She said: this is Koran; leave the necklace, don't touch the necklace. He pulled the necklace off her neck and put it in his pocket then he reached for her neck again starting to harass her. She pushed him away. In a second she was attacked by one of the men standing behind her. He held her for the pasha to beat her again.

Asmaa says:
He beat me across the jaw with the side of his hand and my mouth started to bleed. He started to use dirty language about my mother. It told him to keep my mother out of this. He did it again. I returned his insult. He lost control and started to slap me on the face and band my head against the desk, while the others were holding me for him. I grabbed the paper from his hand trying to see what it says. He grabbed it back and punched me in my chest so that I fell on the ground. He tried to make me sign by force, putting a pan in my hand and I refused and pushed him away with my elbow. He pulled me from my shirt and hit me against the wall and told me I shall teach you to be decent. He asked the other men to take Asmaa to a neighboring room that opens into the office through a side door. She refused. She clung to the office. The men pulled her from her legs into the other room, left her there and closed the door. The room was small, empty, with no windows. The moment they closed the door, an other door opened and two big women entered wearing dark clothes, their faces carrying scars of old injuries.

Asmaa says:
The women were dressed in dark gowns. Their hands were tough and big. They were wearing head scarves. One of them had an old cut wound in her face. Their lips were big,. One of them had a squint and there was something strange about her eyebrows. I stood up and tried to run towards the door. I was scared. One of them said to the other: Hold her. I told her: why are you doing this to me? She said, we are obeying orders. If we don't do this to you they will do more. Then she asked me: what have you done to them, they are dangerous men. Then the beating began.

They were beating like professionals. One of them was beating me with the side of her hand on my neck, the edge of my pelvis and my lower abdomen. I play karate, so I was trying to push them away with me legs. They beat me in all parts of my body. The pushed me more than once so I fell on the ground. They were throwing me to each other. One of them opened my shirt and scratched my chest with her nails until I bled. They tried to undress me but I resisted. The woman holding my neck was telling me strange things, something akin to flirtation. She was saying things like, what a beautiful body; it is a pity what is happening to you. I panicked. I told her my uncle was a police general and you will be in big trouble. I gave them a name I knew. The woman holding me from the back gave me one last kick and then left through the door she had used to enter. After a short while all of them came back. The pasha told the other woman: leave her. She pushed me to the wall. Again I fell on the ground. Again he brought that piece of paper and told me to sign. I refused. He kicked me in my loins and head and stepped with his shoes on my toes and fingers. He pulled me from my hair and hit me against the wall. All this so that I sign. He wanted me to confess to some organization; or to confess that I am with the brotherhood. Then he received a phone call and I heard him say: yes pasha; as I told your Excellency; All right your Excellency. And he hung up.

I was lying on the floor. One of my teeth was broken. My mouth and eyes were bleeding. He pulled me from my hair and swore by the life of my mother that if I ever thought to cross the front door of my house, I shall disappear and nobody will ever find me again. I told him: No. He said: your tongue needs to be cut. I told him: even if you cut my tongue. He said: I am telling you, if you tell anything about what happened here, you will regret it, you and your family. I know everything about you. I have a file for you. I won't let you work in journalism again. Be grateful that our orders were not to send you beyond this room, or would you like to see what lies beyond this room? Throughout those threats he was pulling at my hair, hitting my head against the wall. Then he told his men: Blindfold her and throw her somewhere away from here. Let nobody see you and come back fast. They pulled me from my legs. Then he looked towards me again and threatened: Don't you dare say anything. Say you had an accident. Say anything. I was totally drained. I heard him but could barely see him. I had difficulty breathing because of all the blows I received in my chest. I did not know where the pain came from. I just felt that my whole body was a big piece of pain. They blindfolded me again, carried me, put me in the car and closed the door. One of the men said: you have to listen to what the pasha said, or else you will disappear.

Once again she was blindfolded and carried into the car. This time she was not sitting between two men. She was sitting on one side next to the door. Again they tied her hands behind her back. One of the men started to flirt with her. Another told him to shut up. Then someone asked: where shall we throw her? Then they started to whisper. After some time, Asmaa felt the car go slower.

Asmaa says:
The man next to me removed the blindfold and untied my hands and threw me out of the car. I fell on my right arm. I was unable to stand and unable to see. I could not concentrate. After a while I felt somebody touching my shoulder. It was an old poor woman. She thought I was hit by a car. I asked her: did you see a car pass by here. She said she did not and then asked me what she could do for me. I was unable to see. My eyes were swollen and one eye was bleeding. I asked her to help me get into a taxi. She stopped a taxi for me, helped me to my feet, helped me put my clothes back in order, and then helped me into the tax. I took the taxi and went to the Karama newspaper office.

From El Karama office Asmaa was taken to the Red Crescent Hospital. She was not examined. Only x-rays were taken for her. No interrogation, no documentation, no clinical examination, no report except a small piece of paper that says: possible brain concussion!! Two days later the hospital told her to leave since there was no need for her to stay!! She went home.

Preliminary medical observations

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