Update – Egyptian accuses Embassy of beating him Bikya Masr 15 August 2009 CAIRO: Investigations are in full swing after an Egyptian man accused three American Embassy in Cairo officials of beating him up inside the embassy last week. Ahmed Mohamed al-Takruri, 32, filed a complaint at Cairo’s Qasr al-Nil police station, where he claimed to have been “lured inside the Embassy†before being attacked by three Americans “carrying weapons,†a local newspaper reported on Tuesday. The mortgage marketing company owner told police he was beaten “severely, causing several injuries†before he was taken to a local hospital where his injuries were allegedly addressed Al-Takruri said in his statement that he is married to an American woman called “Linda†and that she had disappeared from their home accompanied by their daughter on August 5, after he refused to give permission for them to travel to the United States. He added that he had been “searching for them in vain†and that after a few days discovered her mobile phone, which had the Embassy phone numbers recently dialed. Upon learning this information, al-Takruri went to the Embassy, where he claims he was met with force. “I contacted the embassy and requested a meeting with Consul,†he said in comments reported by Youm al-Saba’a newspaper. “I went at the time given and entered the Embassy, accompanied by my mother and I was surprised by three Americans with pistols, [who] started to assault me; kicking me to the ground in front of my mother, who was also assaulted when she objected this treatment. The young man told the whole story of the attack in detail in the record of the investigation, and prosecution assigned detectives to do the necessary investigations and notify the embassy of the incident for their response. Responding to the incident, the spokeswoman of the American Ambassador in Egypt, Margaret White said the man “posed a threat to the embassy and the reaction of security guards was appropriate as responding to this threat.” She pointed out that the embassy referred the details of the incident to the Egyptian authorities for investigations. White could not elaborate further on details of the altercation, saying that because the matter is still under investigation, she was unable to talk openly, but did stress that the man and the media's allegations are “exaggerated” and have “deliberately distorted the facts.” In Egypt, the husband can deny their wife permission to travel abroad alone, which appears to have been the case. Foreign women can simply avoid this by traveling on their international passport that does not list marital status. In his statement, he claimed that his wife and daughter had not traveled and are currently in Egypt. He also asked the Attorney General to put their names on the travel ban list so they could not leave the country. According to the man, his wife had converted to Islam before the two were wed. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
