Bodies of 11 torture victims recovered from sit-ins, claims ministry

At least 11 bodies found in the areas around the Rabea al-Adaweya Mosque and Nahda Square sit-ins bore visible signs of torture, an Interior Ministry source told the state-run Middle East News Agency on Monday.

Ten cases have been filed against Muslim Brotherhood  members, who are accused of committing acts of torture at sit-ins calling for the reinstatement of the deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

The bodies of three victims found in the Omraneya district of Giza were identified by the ministry as having clearly been tortured.

The source claimed that the perpetrators had been found and arrested, and allegedly confessed to detaining people they found suspicious at the Nahda Square sit-in and abusing them inside the tents.

Media reports have been rife with accounts of abuse and torture at the two sit-ins in recent days.

Protesters have been camped at these two sites since Morsi was deposed by the military on July 3. Since then, clashes between these camps and security forces as well as area residents have left over 100 dead.

Because the sit-ins are allegedly closed to security personnel, there have purportedly been no official investigations into these allegations.

However, several eyewitness accounts have emerged that point to the presence of makeshift detention areas. Mada Masr has reported accounts of abuse and torture taking place in these areas as well.

Over the past two years, similar allegations had surfaced regarding detention and torture areas at the various sit-ins organized against former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, and then his successors, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Rights groups repeatedly spoke out against this practice, but no legal action was taken.

The same crimes were documented on a wide scale during Morsi’s time in office, when protests broke out after he issued what many called his “dictatorial” November 22 Constitutional Decree that granted him unprecedented powers.

When Morsi’s supporters and detractors clashed in the course of protests against the decree, some anti-Morsi protesters claimed to have been detained and tortured at the hands of Brotherhood members at the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace. Their accounts were documented with photographs and video footage.