CAIRO: All activists arrested during the August 1 raid on central Cairo's Tahrir Square to remove the makeshift tent city have been released, the Egyptian Attorney General said late Wednesday. “The Egyptian Attorney General decided to release all 111 youths arrested during the breaking up of Tahrir Square on Monday August 1,” said activist Khaled Ali, head of the Center for the Social and Economic Rights, in comments carried by daily newspaper al-Youm al-Saba'a. His statement that all protesters that had been arrested were released was confirmed by the Defenders Front of Egypt. Despite the release, controversy remains over the violence used on Monday. A video emerged late Wednesday on ONTV's Akher Kalam (Last Word) where an activist was beaten by two plainclothes police officers as a military soldier stands by and watches. As one activist told Bikyamasr.com, “the police are back and are becoming more confident in their power.” Gun shots were heard and clashes between citizens and security began around 2:30 in the afternoon on Monday, eye witnesses have reported. “They are beating people,” one witness wrote on Twitter shortly after the military arrived. According to witnesses and images on Al Jazeera's Egypt service, it was chaos when the soldiers descended on the area and began beating people who had remained in the square. Many of those who had stayed in Tahrir were families of those who had been killed in the 18-day uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak on February 11. Security forces chased the protesters as they forcibly removed all tents and took over the square. One journalist at the scene reported that “young kids” began throwing rocks at the tanks as they rolled into the square before the attack occurred. Bystanders in the area cheered as the protesters were being removed. A few even tossed bottles of water in the military's direction as reports of beatings and arrests were streaming in. The Prime Minister's office, however, said in a statement that the military “have arrested a number of thugs.” According to another online activist, people with cameras were stopped, their memory cards were removed. One photographer said that he was not arrested “because it was Ramadan.” Most shocking, however, was the story of one young female activist, who said that when security began beating her, she told them she was pregnant. According to her, they responded, “who is the father bitch,” and hit her in the stomach. BM
