CAIRO: An Egyptian human rights group said protesters who were arrested from outside the Israeli embassy on September 9, were beaten, abused and interrogated without any legal representation. The No Military Trails for Civilians groups, said according to several testimonies they collected, that most of those arrested were done so by plainclothes persons and taken to the military police. The group added in a statement that was released Wednesday that the military prosecutor investigated all those arrested without a lawyer's presence and all detainees were held for 15 days under investigation and moved to Torah prison. Hundreds were arrested from outside the Israeli embassy and the ministry of interior on the night of September 9, after clashes erupted between police and protesters who broke into the Israeli embassy and took down their flag for the second time in two weeks. The clashes left at least three dead and over 1,000 injured after police shot teargas and rubber bullets at protesters. The arrests continued on the Saturday and Sunday that followed and now 100 persons are facing either military trial or sate security trials for partaking in the protest. The group accused the military police of randomly arresting people who were not even near the embassy. It mentioned a number of stories of men who were simply walking home that night, kilometers away from the protest but were arrested them nonetheless. Following the unrest, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), who strongly condemned the clashes and called the protesters “thugs who wish to disturb public order,” decided to “reactivate” the infamous emergency laws in an attempt to limit public freedoms that had been won following the January uprising. The SCAF has already issued a draft law that criminalizes sit-ins and protests under the pretense that they “put the nations' benefit on hold.” Thousands have objected to the new emergency laws and a protest of hundreds marched from Tahrir square to the Egyptian cabinet on Sunday in opposition to the law. One of the forces behind the January uprising was the 30-year-old draconian laws during ousted president Hosni Mubarak's era that gave police officers massive leeway to act as they pleased. BM
