Daughter of MB leader detained while visiting her father in prison

The daughter of Muslim Brotherhood leader Hassan al-Brens was taken into custody while visiting her father in prison, reported on Tuesday the state-owned news site EgyNews.

Fatma Hassan al-Brens was detained for being in possession of a memory stick that allegedly contained “a data show of the founding statement of a political movement by the name of the Masters Movement, including an overview of the movement, its vision, goals, public policy and organizational structure,” EgyNews reported.

Fatma was referred to the prosecution for interrogation. Her father remains in preventative detention at Borg al-Arab prison in Alexandria on charges of forming a terrorist organization, attacking public facilities, inciting murder, attempted murder, disturbing the public peace and targeting the Armed Forces and police.

Families of imprisoned Brotherhood members have often reported mistreatment during prison visits. The daughter of the high-profile Brotherhood leader Khairat al-Shater accused security forces of refusing to allow her to visit her father or bring him medicine.

Also on Tuesday, the fact-finding committee tasked with investigating post-June 30 acts of violence said that Brotherhood leaders have once again refused to give testimonies on the dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda Square sit-ins last August, reported the Reuters-affiliated Aswat Masriya news site.

According to a Human Rights Watch report on state violence committed after former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster, at least 1,000 protesters were killed in the sit-in dispersals on August 14, 2013, “the world’s largest killing of demonstrators in a single day in recent history,” according to the report.

This is the second time that senior Brotherhood leaders, including Shater, have refused to cooperate with the state-appointed committee. Fouad Abdel Moneim Riyad — the head of the committee, and an international law professor who previously served in the International Criminal Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia — called their refusal to participate in the investigation “negative,” and “harmful to their cause if the truth doesn’t come out.”

“The door is wide open to anyone who wants to speak to the committee, so that no one claims that they were not allowed to express their views later on,” Riyad said.

The committee was formed by presidential decree in December, 2013. Speaking in a press conference on Tuesday, Riyad asserted that the committee was completely impartial and neutral.

“The committee doesn’t follow the government, despite the fact that it was formed by a state order,” Riyad maintained. “What the committee is doing is documenting all data, regardless of its source, to pave the way for the judiciary, and [the findings] will be recorded in history.”

Riyad also alluded to the HRW statement in his comments, and criticized “the negative views the Brotherhood has against the committee, while they agree to cooperate with foreign human rights organizations performing the same task.”

Following the release of the HRW report, the fact-finding committee issued a statement claiming that it was primarily based on testimonies taken from individuals who refused to cooperate with their investigation. The committee renewed its call for human rights organizations and families of victims and the injured to confidentially share information and evidence.

The committee also rebuked HRW for “missing important violent incidents that are no less significant than those referenced, such as attacks on churches and against Christians, attacks on police stations and violence on university campuses.”

The fact-finding committee, which is comprised solely of judges and legal professionals, has faced criticism not only for its ties to the state and its lack of representation of civil society figures, but also for dragging its heels in releasing its findings.

Riyad asked those attacking the committee to keep in mind that its members were appointed by the government only five months after last year’s deadly dispersal, and they immediately began working on the investigation. He also pointed out that the committee is looking into several incidents, including on-campus violence at the Cairo, Ain Shams, Al-Azhar, Mansoura and Zagazig universities.

The committee is due to finish its work and release a final report in one month.