CAIRO: Egyptian satellite TV anchor Maha Bahnassy came under fire from activists on Twitter after she supported the beating of “thugs.” Bahnassy was engaged in verbal argument that turned ugly at times when Bahnassy viciously replied to others' insults after her support for torture practices. She works as a news presenter at al-Hayat TV. She became embattled with activists after she wrote comments on her personal Twitter account such as “what would you do if a thug killed your father and police were beating him, would you plea for mercy for him?” and “If a thug is arrested with weapons he must be beaten to confess.” “ppl who are defending batlageya (thugs) under the name of human rights, human rights is not teaching how to insult a sister for opinion,” said one of her tweets. She called one person a “low life retard” and exchanged fiery words with a number of other activists on Twitter. Her comments came hours after a video showing military police beating and torturing two men to extract confessions from them went viral on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The men, called “thugs” by the police, were beating badly and electrocuted by dozens of military police in uniform in what was identified as a police station in Daqhkiya, in the Delta region, north of Cairo. “Inciting torture is not an opinion, it is a crime and in an other country you should be jailed,” said human rights activist Salma Said replying to Bahnassy's claim that she is expressing her opinion. BM
