Update: Prosecutor demands enquiry into Interior Ministry for kidnapping

Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat ordered an urgent investigation Wednesday into the Ministry of Interior on charges of kidnapping four students and not disclosing their whereabouts.

The complaint was filed by the families of missing students, privately owned Al-Shorouk reported, accusing the Interior Minister and head of the Cairo Security Directorate of abducting Amr Rabie, Mohamed Saber, Mahmoud Saber and Abdel Rahman Sayed. The complaint accuses security agencies of failing to disclose the location of the students.

The four were allegedly taken from different places over a month ago, and their families were recently surprised to find their names on a referral order issued by State Security Prosecution, listing them as fugitives.

The list of names of 200 that stand accused in a case dubbed “Ansar Beit al-Maqdes” was published by privately owned Youm7 newspaper on Sunday. The 200 are accused of being part of the militant group, attempting to plot terrorist attacks in the Suez Canal and Media Production City and killing 40 policemen and 15 citizens, according to several local media outlets.

While 102 are in custody, the police are searching for another 98, hailed as “some of the most dangerous terrorists,” according to privately owned Al-Dostour newspaper.

The authorities pledged to track down those in hiding and the fugitives in the case.

However, Sahar Masoud, the aunt of Mohamed Saber, whose name is among the 200 suspects and 98 fugitives, has a different story concerning her nephew.

Saber, an engineer living on his own in an apartment in the Giza neighborhood of Ard al-Lewa, was kidnapped from his house on February 14, when policemen stormed it at 3 am. After confiscating many of his belongings, the policemen interrogated him for two hours and arrested him. Two hours later, they moved on to his brother's flat in the Nasr City neighborhood in Cairo and also arrested him.

Ten days later, Saber sent someone to call his family and let them know he was in custody. However, his family still doesn’t know where he is being detained.

“He has no political involvement whatsoever. He doesn't even go to protests,” said Masoud.

Similarly, Sanaa Shahin, the mother of Amr Rabie, 21, has no idea where her son is, except that he disappeared on March 11 and that his name is on the list of fugitive suspects.

Rabie had left the house to meet a friend in the Ramses district in downtown Cairo, but never reached them and his phone was switched off.

Two days later, his friends posted information on Facebook, citing a witness who saw him being arrested in the street by plain clothed police and military conscripts.

“There was no protest. We have no idea what happened,” Shahin said. She has been on the lookout for her son ever since. Relatives of fellow prisoners told her Rabie may be in Azouly prison and might have been tortured. When she went to look for him, she was told it is a military prison and she would not be informed if her son was being detained there or able to gain access to the facility.

“We went to the prosecutor general. We told him, “You are our representative, help us!” But he said that he has no authority over military prisons,” the anxious mother said.

Rabie, a third-year engineering student, was active in the charity work of the Resala organization. “He had no party associations and was against the Muslim Brotherhood. He used to take part in some protests, but wasn't very active,” Shahin adds.

She shivered when she saw her son’s name on the list of the 200 suspects accused of high profile terrorism charges. She shivered even more when she saw that he had been marked as a fugitive.

“It could mean they killed him. We don't even know if he is alive or dead,” she said.