CAIRO: Two young Egyptian women arrested by police on Saturday after they took photographs of police brutality from their homes were released on 2,000 Egyptian pound bail, Egyptian activists reported late on Sunday. Egyptian police have been randomly and systematically arresting people in and around downtown Cairo's Qasr el-Aini street, where clashes broke out Saturday only a few hundred meters from Tahrir Square. One of those arrested was Sarah Abdallah, a resident of Qasr el-Aini street who was spotted by police taking pictures from her balcony. A second woman, Amira al-Asmar, was also arrested for also taking photographs of police violence from her home. Both were reportedly released on bail. Police broke into Abdallah's home and illegally arrested her without proper legal permission. Abdallah was detained over night at a nearby police station. Police, who used massive amounts of tear gas and bird shot to disperse the protesters, also assaulted a number of people, according to a first hand accounts of Bikyanews.com. Police chased down protesters into side streets, including Saad Zaghloul street, and publicly in the sight of terrified residents, beat and assaulted at least four people. One was a young man, who was beaten mercilessly by soldiers using their riot sticks and passed out. After people pleaded with the officers, the assaulted man was seen carried on two soldiers' backs out towards the barbed wire fence that cuts the main thoroughfare by parliament. No official number of how many people were detained in the past two days has been released, but eyewitnesses says tens have been arrested, including passersby and many women. Tension broke out on Monday in the port city of Port Said after a court handed down the death penalty to 21 football fans accused of killing 72 Ahly Club fans following a match in the Port Said last February. The final verdict that will include sentences to the city's police chief, who is accused of neglect on March 9. Violence broke out following the hearing and families and friends of the defendants attempted to break into the prison to free the defendants, allegedly using machine guns, killing two prison guards. The deadly clashes left at least 33 dead including three children. BN
